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THE YOUNG AMERICAN CITIZEN 





Independence Hall 





















THE 

YOUNG AMERICAN 
CITIZEN 


CIVICS FOR GRAMMAR GRADES 






BY 


J. H. BINFORD 

ASSISTANT SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 


AND 


E. U. GRAFF 

SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA 


WITH A SECTION ON THE 

GOVERNMENT OF KENTUCKY 

BY 

LEE KIRKPATRICK 

SUPERINTENDENT OF PUBLIC SCHOOLS 
PARIS, KENTUCKY 


JOHNSON PUBLISHING COMPANY 

RICHMOND, VIRGINIA 




Copyright, 1922, 1924 by 
Johnson Publishing Company 


1 



MAR ?0 ’24 





©C1A777620 




PREFACE 


The principle of self-development through self-activity is now 
well established in education. Modern schools have made remark¬ 
able advances in its application. The child is no longer regarded as 
a mere receptacle. Both the courses of study and the programs of 
schools attempt to make provision for the training of children by 
allowing them to carry on such activities as are needed to develop in 
them certain desirable qualities. This principle is well understood 
by most educators, but not so well by the general public. Many 
activities criticized by school patrons as fads or entertainment 
are in fact the very activities provided for learning by doing. 

The value of the principle of self-development is so obvious 
that subjects which lend themselves to this form of treatment are 
assuming greater importance in the curriculum than ever before. 
Among these subjects is*civics. Because it is a social study, it 
is well adapted for direct application in the school and in the 
community. 

The ultimate purpose of the teaching of civics *is to train for 
citizenship. Necessarily, facts about government are a part of 
this training, but the work should by no means end with a mere 
knowledge of facts. There are so many ways in which to apply 
social and political principles that it would be a pity to limit the 
teaching of civics to the purely academic side of the subject. The 
training that the pupil receives in home and in school in making him 
a helpful, law-abiding member of his group is indeed the most 
effective training for future citizenship possible. In the home he 
learns the lessons of community of interest, division of labor, self- 
denial, and obedience to constituted authority. In the school 
he learns the same lessons in contact and association with a some¬ 
what larger group, and thus develops the attitude and the habits 
which fit him for community life. It should, however, be the 
peculiar province of civics to bring the pupil into touch with the 
great community problems, and thus definitely to enlarge his 
horizon and prepare him for the duties of citizenship. 

In The Young American Citizen the subjects of city, county, 
state, and national government are treated in each of the three 
parts of the book. This progressive treatment is necessary since 

5 


the pupil is unable on first presentation to grasp such subjects 
in their entirety. The topics most easily understood come first, 
more detailed study later, when the pupil is better prepared for it. 
Such large and important subjects as health and thrift, which 
because of their essential natui'e must be repeated at reasonable 
intervals, are given the same spiral development. 

This text has made provision for group activities by the 
organization of a class club. The class club will find many oppor¬ 
tunities for work in the school through various committees. For 
example, one class club in a certain school had a “noon committee,” 
the function of which was to assist in taking care of the building 
and grounds during the noon hour. It had a “room committee” 
by whose efforts the schoolroom was made attractive. There were 
boys’ and girls’ “basement committees,” and a “lunch committee” 
to supervise the lunch hour. There were also a “yard committee” 
and a “hedge committee,” the duties of which were to beautify the 
grounds and building and to improve the appearance of the school. 
Other occupations for the school club will suggest themselves to 
every teacher. Such an organization can be made of real assistance 
in obtaining the cooperation and the enthusiastic interest of the 
pupils. 

In addition to the class club, there are four principal ways 
in which pupils may be stimulated to undertake applied work 
in civics: (1) Dramatization and pageantry; (2) Student organi¬ 
zations which exemplify the working of civic bodies; (3) Actual 
participation by children in adult community activities; (4) Visits 
to and study of community utilities. (See page 310.) 

The authors earnestly believe that this text, whiqh presents 
high civic ideals and practical plans for putting these ideals into 
effect, will be welcomed by teachers who aim to secure maximum 
results from an elementary course in civics. 


6 


CONTENTS 


Part I 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Junior Citizens Club Organized .11 

II. What a Community Is.18 

III. Different Kinds of Communities.23 

IV. The Playground.29 

V. Courage and Fair Play.35 

VI. Work and Cooperation.40 

VII. A Health Lesson.46 

VIII. Thrift. 52 

IX. The Good Citizen.56 

X. Our City.60 

XI. Our County.68 

XII. Our State.73 

XIII. Our Nation .70 

Part II 

XIV. The Junior Citizens Club Reorganized.85 

XV. Occupations.91 

XVI. Keeping Things Clean.98 

XVII. Savers and Wasters .104 

XVIII. Beauty . Ill 

XIX. Safety.116 

XX. Fire Prevention.124 

XXI. Education.129 

XXII. Laws.136 

XXIII, Trials.141 


7 

























CHAPTER 

XXIV. City Government. 148 

XXV. County Government. 157 

XXVI. State Government. 163 

XXVII Some Things the Nation Does for Us. 175 

Part III 

XXVIII. The Junior Citizens Club Reorganized .. 184 

XXIX. Choosing a Vocation. 187 

XXX. Outdoor Life. 194 

XXXI. Agriculture and Manufacturing. 202 

XXXII. Transportation and Communication. 213 

XXXIII. Where Our Liberty Came From. 228 

XXXIV. The Constitution of the United States. 235 

XXXV. The President and the Executive Departments- 241 

XXXVI. Congress and Its Work. 249 

XXXVII. The Federal Courts. 255 

XXXVIII. Money and Credit. 260 

XXXIX. How the National Government Raises Revenue. .. . 268 

XL. Political Parties. 271 

XLI. Naturalization. 277 

XLII. Expansion of the United States. 283 

XLIII. America and the World. 292 

XLIV-LI. Government of Kentucky. 299 

Appendix 

SECTION 

I. Suggestions to Teachers. 329 

II. Meeting of a Junior Citizens Club. 335 

III. Problems and Projects. 340 

IV. The Text of the Constitution. 344 


8 

























The American’s Creed 

I believe in the United States of 
America as a government of the people, 
by the people, for the people, whose 
just powers are derived from the con¬ 
sent of the governed; a democracy in 
a republic; a sovereign nation of many 
sovereign states; a perfect union, one 
and inseparable; established upon 
those principles of freedom, equality, 
justice, and humanity for which 
American patriots sacrificed their 
lives and fortunes. 

I therefore believe it is my duty to 
my country to love it; to .support its 
Constitution; to obey its laws; to 
respect its flag, and to defend it 
against all enemies. 

— William Tyler Page 




Houdon’s Statue of Washington, Capitol, Richmond, Va. 





The Young American Citizen 

PART ONE 
CHAPTER I 

THE JUNIOR CITIZENS CLUB ORGANIZED 

Problems: (1) To learn the value of organization; and 
(2) to effect an organization. 

A Great Fire.—A fire broke out some years ago in 
the city of Manila, in the Philippine Islands. The 
lightly built wooden houses blazed like tinder, and in a 
short time the flames spread until a large part of the 
city was on fire, and its entire destruction seemed at 
hand. The natives, unused to thinking quickly, were 
in a state of panic. They could neither stop the fire 
nor save their household belongings. Terrified, they 
looked on helplessly at the leaping flames. 

Help Appears.—Two groups of helpers appeared on 
the scene of the fire at the same time. One was the 
fire company, which promptly set to work throwing 
streams of water on the burning buildings. The other 
was a patrol of Boy Scouts, who hurried to the fire at 
the first alarm. They helped to carry furniture to a 
place of safety; they gave help to the fire companies; 
they bore messages. Acting in obedience to their 
Scout Master and the chief of the firemen, who gave 
orders, they did wonders. Their work that day 
greatly lessened the horrors of the fire, which burned a 
11 


great part of Manila and left three thousand people 
homeless. 

Power of Organization.—How was it that two bands 
of workers could do so much while the natives stood 
around helpless from fright? It was through the 
power of organization. The firemen had practiced their 
calling for years. The boys were organized and trained 
to be of use at just such times—therefore they knew 
what to do. They knew how to cooperate —that is, 
how to act together. They knew how to take orders 
and carry them out. A small number of Boy Scouts, 
organized and trained, were of more use than hundreds 
of grown men who had had no experience in teamwork. 

Girl Scouts.—What is done for the world of boy¬ 
hood by the Boy Scouts is done for girls by the similar 
societies of Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls. These 
clubs have taught girls how to do many things about 
the house, given them a knowledge of outdoor life, and 
helped to make them strong and healthy. Like the 
Boy Scouts, the Girl Scouts and Camp Fire Girls learn 
the lessons of organization and the ideals of citizenship. 

Organizing a Club.—How would you like to organ¬ 
ize your class into a club similar in many respects to 
the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, and Camp Fire Girls? 
This society will add to the pleasures of your school life 
because its meetings will be different from your regular 
classroom exercises, and it may lead you to undertake 
a number of projects that you will enjoy. Through 
this club you will take up a new study, civics , in which 
you should learn many things about the history and 
government of your country, facts that will help you 
to vote rightly, when the time comes, and to be a good 

n 


citizen in all ways. Just as the Boy Scouts organization 
teaches boys to be strong, kind, courageous, and 
honorable, so your Junior Citizens Club will train you 
in the public duties of men and women in a free 
country. 

Way to Organize a Club.—“How shall we organize 
a Junior Citizens Club and what work shall we do 
after we have organized?” you ask. This book has 
been written to guide and help you. In each chapter 
you will find a study of facts about your government or 
a discussion of the duties of citizens. At the end of each 
chapter you will find certain things outlined for your 
club to do, questions to be discussed, and suggestions 
for other work. 

But we must first organize our Junior Citizens 
Club. The following is an account taken down in 
shorthand of the organization of a club in the 5-A grade 
of a large city school. Read it carefully and then 
organize your own club. 

Junior Citizens Club of Longfellow School 

The class was called to order by the teacher, who 
acted as chairman until the organization of the club was 
completed. The teacher, after explaining the purpose 
of the Junior Citizens Club as the teaching of citizen¬ 
ship by practical lessons, appointed a committee to 
bring in reports on a constitution for the club and a 
pledge to be taken by the members. 

On the following Friday the club met again. The 
teacher, as chairman, called for the report of the com¬ 
mittee on the constitution and pledge. The committee 
made the following report: 

13 


Constitution for Junior Citizens Club 

Article 1. This organization shall be known as the 
Junior Citizens Club of the Fifth Grade of Longfellow School. 

Article 2. The object of this association shall be to 
train members for real citizenship and, furthermore, to 
accomplish each year at least one thing of importance for 
the school or the community. 

Article 3. The officers of the club shall be a president, 
a vice president, a secretary, and a treasurer. They shall be 
elected by ballot and shall hold office until the end of the 
school year. 

Article 4. The meetings of the Junior Citizens Club 
shall be held on Friday afternoon of each week of the school 
term and shall begin at two o’clock. 

Article 5. The following committees shall be appointed: 
Visiting, to visit sick members of the club; Improvement, to 
assist the teacher in bettering the appearance of the school¬ 
room; and Entertainment, to get up programs for Christmas 
and Easter, and other special days. Each committee shall 
consist of three members, and the committees shall be 
changed at the middle of the school year. 

The Pledge 

We will never bring disgrace to our school, city, or 
country. 

We will obey our school, city, and country’s laws. 

We will stand for the right, with others or alone. 

We will aid the poor, the old, the young, and all who 
need help. 

We pledge allegiance to the flag of our country and our 
most earnest efforts to keep ourselves worthy of that flag. 

The teacher then said: “All who are in favor of 
adopting this constitution and this pledge as the law 
of the Junior Citizens Club will say ‘Aye.’” 

A chorus of “Ayes” game from the class in reply. 

The teacher went on: “All who are opposed to 
adopting the constitution and pledge will say ‘No.’” 

Not. a single student said “No.” 

14 


“As the ‘Ayes’ have it unanimously,” said the 
teacher, “the constitution and pledge are adopted as 
the law of the Junior Citizens Club. The constitution 
calls for the election of a president by ballot. Nom¬ 
inations for president are now in order.” 

“I nominate Sam Blackburn,” said Henry Brown, 
rising. 

“Sam Blackburn is nominated,” went on the teacher. 
“Are there any other nominations?” 

Willie Smith rose from his seat. “I nominate 
Mary O’Callaghan,” he said. 

“Mary O’Callaghan is nominated,” said the teacher. 
“Are there any other nominations?” 

No one spoke, and the nominations were declared 
closed. 

“Sam Blackburn and Mary O’Callaghan are 
nominated for president, and we are ready to vote,” 
said the teacher. 

She appointed two boys to act as tellers. The 
tellers tore up sheets of paper into small bits and gave 
one piece or ballot to each member of the class. Accord¬ 
ing to the teacher’s direction, each member of the class 
wrote on the piece of paper the name of the candidate 
for whom he or she voted. When all the ballots had been 
written, the tellers collected them and read them, one 
by one, aloud. As they did so, the count was kept on 
the blackboard by two students, a boy and a girl. It 
was found that the result was as follows: 


Sam Blackburn. . 22 

Mary O’Callaghan. 18 


“Sam Blackburn, having received a majority of the 
15 




votes cast, is elected president of the Junior Citizens 
Club/’ said the teacher, “and he will now come for¬ 
ward and take the chair.” 

Sam Blackburn came forward, and the teacher gave 
up her seat to him. Then the president called for the 
election of a vice president in the same manner in 
which he himself had been elected. The election of a 
secretary and treasurer followed in order. 



Officers of a Civics Club 


After the election of officers, the president ap¬ 
pointed the members of the Visiting Committee, 
Improvement Committee, and Entertainment Com¬ 
mittee, and asked them to report at the next meeting 
of the club. 

A general talk then took place as to the way in 
which the club could best further the study of civics. 
The teacher gave her views, and several of the students 
spoke. It was decided that committees should report 
16 




daily on the special topics at the end of each lesson in 
the textbook. These committees were to be appointed 
by the president with the aid of the teacher. It was 
also agreed that committees should work out practical 
projects suggested in the book. 

The president called for a motion to adjourn. The 
motion was made, seconded, and carried, and the 
president declared the Junior Citizens Club adjourned 
until the next meeting. 


Organizing Your Club 

I. Appoint committees to report on the following: 

Name of the organization. 

Object of the club. 

Constitution and Pledge. 

Slogans. 

Time and place of meetings. 

II. Report of the committees. (The teacher will hold the chair until 
the permanent organization is completed.) 

III. Election of officers by ballot. 


17 


CHAPTER II 

WHAT A COMMUNITY IS 

Problems: (1) To learn what a community is; and (2) 
to find out all you can about the early history of your com¬ 
munity. 

Robinson Crusoe.—Suppose you were the only 
person on an island: would you be happy? You know 
you would not, for you would be lonely and in constant 
fear that some wild beast or savage man would kill 
you. You have read the story of Robinson Crusoe, who 
was shipwrecked on a lonely island in the Pacific 
Ocean. He had to do everything for himself, since 
there was no one to help him. He built a house; killed 
goats and dried their flesh; fashioned furniture; 
molded pots from clay; and made from goatskins a 
hat, a suit of clothes, leggings, and an umbrella. 

His Own Master.—Robinson had all the necessaries 
of life and he was master of his island. He could do 
as he liked all the time. He rose in the morning when 
it pleased him and spent the day as he chose. He cut 
down as many trees as he wished and killed goats 
whenever he felt like going shooting. He had no taxes 
to pay, no rent, no grocery and clothing bills. Yet he 
was unhappy because he was alone. As the years 
passed, his desire for the sight of a human face and the 
sound of a human voice grew almost unbearable. 

Footprints in the Sand.—One day while he was 
walking along the seashore, Robinson suddenly came 
18 


across the footprints of a man in the sand. He stopped, 
almost overcome by his feelings. There was another 
man—or men—on the island! He knew that they must 
be savages, and so enemies to himself, and yet the very 
presence of other people on his lonely isle filled his 
heart anew with the thirst for human companionship. 
Some time later he saw several canoes approaching the 
shore. A number of savages landed, carrying with 
them two prisoners. One of these was killed and cut 
up to eat. The other, before he could be put to death, 
made a dash for freedom. He ran toward the spot 
where Robinson lay hidden in the bushes, followed by 
two of his captors. Robinson made up his mind to help 
the fleeing savage. He knocked down one of the 
pursuers and killed the other with a shot from his 
gun. 

Friday.—The captive fell on his knees on the sand 
to show his gratitude for his rescue. Then he spoke 
some words in a language that Robinson did not under¬ 
stand. Sweeter sounds never came to Robinson’s 
. ears. At last, after years of loneliness, he heard a 
human voice and felt the comfort of human compan¬ 
ionship. He took the man to live with him and named 
him Friday, because he had come on that day of the 
week. 

A Community Formed.—The coming of Friday 
changed Robinson Crusoe’s life. \tyjiy was this? 
There was some one to be with, to talk to, and to work 
alongside. As the Bible says, man was not made to 
live alone: he was made to live with others. Some¬ 
thing else followed from Friday’s coming. Robinson 
Crusoe had to think of another besides himself. Before 


19 


Friday came he could do as he chose, but now he had to 
consider his companion’s rights and interests as well 
as his own—otherwise, he and Friday could not have 
lived together. What resulted from Friday’s coming 
was that a community was formed. True, it was the 
smallest possible community—only two men—but it 
was a community, because each had to help the other. 



A Pioneer’s Home 


Cooperation is the essential feature of any community: 
it is the cement that binds the parts together. 

Jamestown and Plymouth.—The story of Robinson 
Crusoe is fiction, but the history of the early colonists 
who settled our country shows that men must live in 
communities—that this is the natural mode of living. 
Suppose the settlers who landed at Jamestown and 
Plymouth had at once gone out as separate families 
20 




into the forest. What would have become of them? 
They would have perished from hunger or from attacks 
of Indians. So at first they lived together in settle¬ 
ments, and in this way subdued the forest, conquered 
disease and famine, and kept the savages at bay. Even 
when they scattered, they had a community organi¬ 
zation binding together the settlers in a region. The 
colonists in Virginia called their communities “hun- 



A Colonial Home 

dreds,” and the New England settlers named theirs 
“towns.” 

Community Life.—From the study of history we 
learn that it is natural and necessary for people to live 
in communities. It is because of this fact that they 
have risen from savagery to a state of civilization. 
There could be no farms, factories, railroads, stores, 
churches, and schools if men did not dwell and work 
21 






together. Because people live in communities, they 
have learned to observe certain agreements that are 
for the good of all. These we call laws , and the power 
that enforces laws we call government. The community 
you know is your neighborhood. Go to the top of a 
tall building or high hill, and your community spreads 
out before you with its homes, roads, streets, churches, 
stores, and schoolhouses. Farther than the eye can 
see lie larger communities of which you are also a citizen 
—your city, county, state, and nation. 

Club Activities 

1. Make a list of the things you would like to show a visitor to your 
community. 

2 . Write the names of the men and women from your community 
who have played a prominent part in the building of our nation. 

3. Find out from histories or from old people facts about the first 
settlement of your community: from what place (or places) the settlers 
came; why they moved; and how they made the journey. 

4. Describe the difference between your community as it is now and 
as it was in the days of your grandfather. 

5. Tell: (a) what a citizen receives from his community; (b) how he 
can help his community. 

6. Let each club member bring in writing on a slip of paper one answer 
to the following question, “How Can We Help Our Community?” Write 
the five best answers on the blackboard. 


22 


CHAPTER III 

DIFFERENT KINDS OF COMMUNITIES 

Problems: (1) To study the different kinds of communi¬ 
ties; and (2) to learn about the spirit that makes each 
community a success. 

The First Community.—The community formed by 
Robinson Crusoe was accidental—that is, it was the 
result of the meeting of two lonely men on a desert 
isle. But the first community that all of us know is a 
natural one—the home. Wherever a father, mother, 
and child live together is a home. 

Rights of Home.—Friday had certain rights that 
Robinson Crusoe was obliged to respect; and in the 
same way the child in the home has rights. You have 
the right to good food, good training, good surround¬ 
ings, and other advantages, which your parents gladly 
give you. However, what the home teaches primarily 
is that every member of the little community has 
rights which it is necessary to observe. You have 
the right to play in the fresh air as much as you wish. 
But if some one lies ill near your playground, you will 
go elsewhere to play or not play at all for the time: 
to make a noise near a sick person is to disregard the 
rights of others. In the home father, mother, and 
child have rights, and the proper observance of these 
rights is the first step to be learned in the larger 
cooperation of life. 

Home Old as the Race.—The home is as old as 


23 



the human race. Ages ago, before men were civilized 
and lived in houses or even tents, when their dwelling 
places were nothing but caves, they lived in families 
and had homes. The home has remained ever since, 
through the thousands of years of human progress, as 
the greatest institution of humanity, the base on 
which everything else rests. 

What Has Grown Out of Homes. —In early times, 


Copyright. Publishers Photo Service 

A Comfortable Country Home 

before the beginning of civilization, each home was a 
little community all to itself, ruled by the father. 
Then a number of families combined to form a tribe, 
which elected some one to be chief. Later, a number 
of tribes united to form a little city. This process of 
combining tribes and cities has gone on ever since, 
until there have come into being the great empires 
and republics of today. 


24 



Government Springs from the Home.—The first 
government was that of the home itself. But at a very 
early period men found that they could not live to 
themselves, with their families. They had to come 
together for mutual benefit. Before there were any 
laws and rulers, the men of a locality would meet and 
talk over matters of common concern. Perhaps dis¬ 
putes over land were to be settled. Perhaps the cattle 
of one man had been seized by another. Perhaps 
enemies were troubling the neighborhood and there 
was need of defense against them. For the protection 
of all, the families in a neighborhood—most of them 
relatives—would combine to form a larger community, 
putting some man or men at the head. They would 
agree to do or not to do certain things, and these 
agreements came in time to be called laws. 

The Church. —Families united for other reasons 
besides mutual protection. Even in very early times 
the tribes came together for worship, and neighbor¬ 
hoods have gone on ever since meeting in churches. 
The church is an important community. It teaches 
the relation of God to man and right living, but in 
the past it did much more than this. A few genera¬ 
tions ago the majority of people could not read or write. 
They depended on preachers, who were educated men, 
to teach them by means of sermons. Many people 
obtained their whole knowledge of history, politics, 
geography, and other subjects by attending church. 
In public meetings the preacher played a leading part 
because he was well informed. No matter how poor 
and ignorant a neighborhood might be, there was 
almost always a Bible in it and some people able to 
25 


read the Bible. The laws and moral ideas of the 
Hebrews thus became the rule of conduct for Europe 
and America. 

The School. —In still another way families meet 
to form a community—a community much newer than 
home and church. The school is a community formed 
by the union of families. Formerly, in the country, 



A Country School 


the school was a small community because bad roads 
made it impossible for the children to come long 
distances to school. But with modern good roads, 
there have arisen consolidated schools, which have 
large buildings and a considerable number of students. 
Because of this consolidation, it is possible for country 
children to have wider opportunities in study and in 
play. 


26 




Teamwork in School. —The school itself includes 
smaller communities. Members of baseball and foot¬ 
ball and basket-ball teams are parts of little com¬ 
munities, for they are persons working, or rather 
playing, together for a common end. Teamwork, or 
cooperation, is the essence of success in athletics as 
in many other affairs of life. Students who learn 
teamwork not only play games better; they do better 
work in the schoolroom and they feel a common 
interest in the welfare of the school. They try to 
make the school, outside and inside, a more attractive 
place in which to live, and they sometimes have a 
newspaper in which to record the various activities 
of the school community. 

County and Town. —These first communities—the 
home, the church, the school—serve to introduce us 
to the larger communities of which we are also mem¬ 
bers. The study of civics deals with these larger 
communities—political communities—of which every 
man and every woman are parts. The first of the 
political communities with which we come in contact 
is the county or the town. The county is a community 
made up of all the farms and villages and stores and 
churches—with the people—in a certain part of a 
state. The town or city is the community made up of 
all the people living within the limits of a group of 
houses large enough to form a town or city. 

The State. —The next political community is the 
state. A number of counties, cities and towns form 
a state, which is a community of importance. The 
state makes most of the laws under which we 
live. Most courts which interpret the laws are state 
27 


courts. The state officers who enforce the laws come in 
contact with everybody in one way or another. In 
nearly all the relations of life we touch the state and 
its government. 

The Nation.—The largest community of which 
we are members is the nation. The American nation 
is made up of forty-eight states and the District of 
Columbia. The nation makes certain laws under 
which we live and attends to our relations with foreign 
nations. The well-being of all the citizens of our 
country is dependent on the wisdom with which the 
national affairs are conducted. This is the reason 
that it is so important to have a good President and a 
competent Congress. 

Club Activities 

1. Give a brief account of the growth of the home and tell how govern¬ 
ment springs from it. 

2. Discuss in class this question: Should children receive a weekly 
allowance for chores done at home? (See page 302.) 

3. Organize your club into committees to do the following tasks: 

Keep the floor clean and free of paper. 

Beautify the walls. 

Purchase pictures. 

Beautify the school grounds by cleaning up and planting trees 
and flowers. 

Make money to buy books for a library. 

Make the school more healthful. 

4. Make a list of all the communities of which you are a member. Ex¬ 
plain why the following are communities: a baseball team; a school; a home. 

5. Show how your neighborhood community helps other communities. 

6. Show how communities in other parts of the state and nation help 
your community. 


28 


CHAPTER IV 
THE PLAYGROUND 

Problems: (1) To study organization as shown in the 
playground; and (2) to organize some kind of team. 

Organization. —The best place in which to learn 
organization is in your play. You have found that 
when you play games you must have government, 
unless the play is to be mere romping. Without rules 
you cannot play any game, because you do not know 
what may and what may not be done in the course of 
the game. All cooperation depends on such rules. 

Rules in Games. —Boys’ games are played according 
to strict rules. The game of marbles even employs a 
term used in law, for a boy sometimes says “venue” 
when he wishes to gain a certain advantage, and 
unless he says “venue” before another boy can say 
it he loses the advantage. Most girls’ games also have 
rules that must be observed carefully; indeed, children 
pay more attention to them than grown people. 

Baseball. —It is, however, in the leading athletic 
games, such as baseball, football, basket ball, and 
hockey, that the importance of regulations is seen. 
There are many rules in baseball, and they must be 
known to the umpire. The umpire is the person who 
decides what happens in each play and enforces the 
rules. If the umpire is not obeyed the game breaks up, 
because the same play cannot be decided in two ways. 
If the umpire says that a batter is out at first base, 
29 



the decision must be accepted, even if it is wrong. 
Usually the umpire is right; we go ahead on the 
principle that he is, because if we act on any other 
plan there can be no government of the game. 

Football. —The rules of football are even more 
numerous and rigid than those of baseball. Thus, 
one cannot tackle or seize hold of anyone but the boy 


Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 

Harvard Practicing for the Varsity Eleven 

with the ball, cannot run out of bounds, and in making 
a forward pass must observe a number of things. The 
principal official of a football game is the referee; 
he decides when a play is ended and when the penalties 
for making mistakes should be applied. Two linesmen 
determine whether or not the required distance has 
been made in the number of plays allowed. 

30 



The Captain. —The playing of baseball and football 
is under the control of captains. Every baseball, 
football, or basket-ball team has its captain, who 
governs it. The captain makes up his mind as to 
what boys, or girls, are to be on the team and what 
style of game is to be played. In football, the quarter¬ 
back decides what plays are to be made while the 
game is going on, because he is the player who gives 
the signals. The team is taught to know and obey the 
signals, and if one of the players fails to attend to 
them the result is disastrous to his side. The eleven 
which has good teamwork usually beats an opposing 
eleven which has finer players but poorer teamwork. 
In fact, the game of football is a most excellent training 
in organization. The boy who plays football learns 
from it the value of government better than in almost 
any other way, because the good lessons we learn 
while we are enjoying ourselves are the best lessons 
of all. W e see what they mean to us. 

Choosing the Captain. —At the end of every season 
a football team chooses a captain for the next season. 
Who is chosen—a fractious boy? Never. The men 
who coach, or train, the team have a voice in the 
election of the captain, and they always want a boy 
who knows how to work with others. The boy who 
can do this will be the best one to teach other boys 
cooperation—and that means success in football as 
in most of the other things of life. The captain must 
be a good player, or the other players will not respect 
him. He must, too, be a leader—that is, he must know 
how to make others follow his leadership. He must 
be an honorable boy, one in whom the other boys feel 
31 


confidence, or else they will not believe that he is 
fair in choosing the players to make up the team. 
In football the rule of merit must apply; otherwise 
good players will give up the effort to get on the team. 
This choosing of the captain is the first step that boys 
and girls take in government. You are called on to 
vote for the baseball, football, or basket-ball captain 
now, and when you grow up you will be called on to 
vote for the officers of the government. The judg¬ 
ment you develop in helping to choose the right captain 
will aid you in later life in selecting the right governor, 
or Congressman, or President. 

Sacrifices of Play. —Sometimes boys and girls are 
called on to make sacrifices in games. Perhaps a 
girl has to give up her place on the basket-ball team 
because another girl has become a better player and 
will help the team more. President Roosevelt on one 
occasion did honor to a football player for the fine 
spirit of sacrifice he showed in a Harvard-Yale game. 
One of the Harvard halfbacks had played splendidly 
through both halves of a hard-fought game: largely 
by his efforts the ball had been brought close to the 
Yale goal posts. But the game was near the end and 
would result in a tie unless Harvard could kick a 
field goal. Then the halfback who had played so 
well was taken out of the game in order to make way 
for another player who could kick goals. He went 
without a word of remonstrance, and the newcomer 
kicked a goal and won the game. The sacrifice of the 
first player made victory possible. 

Freedom in Play. —Organization does not mean the 
doing away with freedom, either at home or in play. 

32 


In homes where there is organization, the children have 
more time for themselves than in houses where there 
is constant quarreling, where meals are not on time, 
and where the children do not go to bed and get up at 
regular hours. In the same way, the football player 
who cooperates loyally with his team mates has more 
freedom than the player who does not. The very fact 
that he plays in harmony with ten other boys, and 
helps them and is helped by them, gives him a chance 
to do things he otherwise could not hope to do. It is 
by teamwork that the ball is advanced toward the 
goal, near enough for the watchful player to seize his 
opportunity. Then, suddenly, he is thrown the ball 
and is free to do his best behind the screen of fellow 
players who protect him and are called his 4 ‘ inter¬ 
ference.’’ He is free to make a touchdown and win 
the game, when without teamwork, or cooperation, 
he could accomplish nothing. 

The Benefits of Play. —There are great benefits to 
be derived from play: the development of character 
and the strengthening of the body. There are other 
good things besides. Play trains for later life. Most 
boys who play games well and learn the value of 
organization do well in after life—often they do much 
better than brilliant students. The reason for this 
is that they know how to do their best under hard 
circumstances, how to work with others, and how to 
stand rough knocks. Play also develops judgment, 
good will, sportsmanship, and a sense of justice and 
honesty. The world is not an easy place to succeed in: 
it demands all of the qualities mentioned—cooperation, 
hard work, and endurance particularly. If you learn 
33 


these things at play, you have learned most valuable 
lessons. 

Playgrounds.—Once upon a time people paid little 
attention to playgrounds for children. That was 
before they realized the great importance of play in 
the life of a child and his training. Today we sometimes 
fear that children will not get enough play. We have 
learned that happy, healthy children will make happy, 
healthy men and women, and that in depriving them 
of fresh air and plenty of play we are depriving them 
of their birthright. 

Club Activities 

1. Make a list of games which can be played in your section in summer; 
in winter. 

2 . If you have no baseball, football, basket-ball, or hockey teams, 
organize one or more of them now. 

3. Make plans for raising money for these teams. 

4. Suggest games suited to a lower grade and help teach the boys and 
girls of that grade how to play them. 

5. Make fields or courts for games. 

6. Write good cheers and songs for your team. 

7. Make a large poster on which members of teams will sign their names. 

8. Make a list of the recreations provided by your community. 

9. Go to the front of the room and speak for two minutes on your 
favorite game, giving your reason for preferring it. 


34 


CHAPTER V 

COURAGE AND FAIR PLAY 

Problems: (1) To discuss courage and fair play; and 
(2) to tell of instances of fair play in your school life. 

Courage. —Both physical and moral courage can be 
learned, in a high degree, on the playground. It re¬ 
quires bravery to be a good football player. It takes 
courage to dive at the man running with the ball, and 
it demands courage to run with the ball when you 
know that you will be tackled and thrown to the 
ground. This is physical courage. Moral courage 
comes in not losing heart when the odds seem against 
you. Often a football team is beaten before the game 
begins, because of its fear of the other team. We 
should make up our minds to play our best and refuse 
to acknowledge defeat beforehand, no matter what the 
odds may be. 

Moral Courage in Play. —A good example of moral 
courage was shown by a Harvard football team in a 
Harvard-Yale game a few years ago. Yale had won all 
of its previous games; Harvard had had a bad season. 
Almost everybody thought that Yale would win easily, 
but the Harvard players refused to be beaten before¬ 
hand. When the contest began, it was evident that the 
Yale players were heavier and stronger; they made 
great gains at first. But Harvard always rallied when 
the danger seemed greatest and held Yale from its 
goal line. The first half passed, the second half was 
35 


nearing an end, and still the weaker Harvard team was 
not beaten and the stronger Yale team was not the 
victor. Then, suddenly, something happened. The 
lightest and frailest player on the field, the Harvard 
quarterback, made a great run that changed the whole 
course of the game. Harvard turned from the defensive 
to the offensive, stormed across Yale’s goal line and 
won the game. It was a triumph of “gameness,” gained 
because the team which everybody expected to lose 
resolved on victory and won. 

Patrick Henry.—There is another and harder kind 
of moral courage, and that consists in doing what you 
think to be right when the crowd is against you. It 
sometimes happens in life that the crowd is against 
you—that the majority is mistaken. A great example 
of moral courage was shown by Patrick Henry in 1765, 
in the Virginia House of Burgesses. The English 
Parliament had put a tax on the American colonies. 
The Americans felt that the tax was wrong, but a 
majority in the House of Burgesses also thought that it 
would be wrong to refuse to pay the tax. Then Patrick 
Henry arose and declared that the tax was tyranny and 
should not be paid, that the king of England was a bad 
ruler. It took both moral and physical courage to do 
that. The House of Burgesses might have looked on 
Henry as a traitor; the British government might have 
hanged him. As it was, his courage and oratory carried 
the House of Burgesses with him; the majority agreed 
with him, and the American Revolution began. 

Need of Moral Courage. —The need of moral courage 
is no less now than then. Our country at the present 
time faces dangers of many kinds. If it rises above 
36 


them, it will be because we are brave and dutiful. We 
must learn to be brave in civic matters—to oppose 
cheating and waste and the election of bad men to 
office. We must learn to vote as we think right, even 
if it is sometimes to our disadvantage. We must learn 
to put what we believe to be the good of the country 
above all other things. If we do this, the future of 
America will be great and glorious. 

Need of Fair Play. —There is another quality needed 
in civics, as in all other affairs of life, and that is a sense 
of fair play. We must be just to others. To do this 
takes courage. The coward seldom believes in it or 
practices it. We may say that fair play is the motto 
of our country: always the United. States has stood 
for that. The republic was founded on the great idea 
of seeing that everybody gets justice. In the relations 
of this country with foreign powers, we have always 
contended for fair play. We have fought for it, and, 
if necessary, we will fight for it again. 

Fair Play on the Playground. —The way to learn 
fair play is on the playground. There are always oppor¬ 
tunities to cheat in games or to do something that is not 
quite right. If you are playing football, you will be 
tempted to “hold” an opposing player, which is wrong. 
If you are running the bases in a baseball game, you 
will be tempted to cut them if you think the umpire is 
not looking. Make up your mind to lose rather than 
do these things. The great law of life is Play the game 
by the rules. 

A Fair Play Story. —Owen Johnson, in one of his 
stories, has given a fine example of fair play and also of 
moral courage. Two football teams in a school were 
37 


playing for the school championship. Dink Stover, 
one of the boys, had expected to play, but instead he 
was made a linesman—that is, one of the officials of 
the game. Both teams played well and the contest was 
hard fought. Stover was wild to see his own team win, 
the team on which he hoped to play next time. In the 
last moments of play the opposing team made a touch- 



Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 


A Struggle at the Goal 

down, tying the score. Then the goal was kicked, but 
there was doubt whether it was really a goal. Every¬ 
thing depended on this. If a goal had been kicked, 
Stover’s team was beaten; if it had not, the game was a 
tie. This is what followed: 

“No goal,” said Slugger Jones, the umpire. “Time’s up!” 
The other team, the Woodhull, began to dispute the 
decision. Slugger Jones, surrounded by the mass of shouting 

38 








boys, began to take the vote of the officials. The referee and 
the linesman for the Woodhull both said that it was a goal. 
Then the question was put'to Stover for decision. 

“Dink, was it a goal or no goal?” 

Stover suddenly found himself in a whirling, angry 
mass—the decision of the game in his own hands. He saw 
the faces of Tough McCarty and the Coffee-Colored Angel in 
the crowd about him and he saw the sneer on their faces 
as they waited for his answer. Then he saw the faces of his 
own team mates and knew what they, in their frenzy, ex¬ 
pected from him. 

He hesitated. 

“Goal or no goal?” cried the umpire, for the second time. 

Then suddenly, face to face with the hostile mass, the 
fighting blood came to Dink. Something cold went up his 
back. He looked once more above the riot, to the shadowy 
posts, and then, with a snap to his jaws, he answered: 

“Goal!” 

Thus Dink Stover, risking unpopularity, stood for 
fair play. 

Club Activities 

1. Give instances of moral and physical courage shown on your 
playground. 

2. Tell stories you have read of moral and physical courage. 

3. Discuss “fair play” in the following cases: 

When a big boy fights a little one. 

When a number of boys haze one boy. 

When an outsider is put on a school team. 


39 


CHAPTER VI 
WORK AND COOPERATION 

Problems: (1) To study the growth of occupations; and 
(2) to learn the value of cooperation. 

Robinson Crusoe on his island home had to do 
everything for himself: he was a hunter, gunsmith, 
carpenter, potter, cook, tailor, hat maker, shoemaker, 
and he did many other things. Having no one to help 
him, he had to be a Jack-of-all-trades. 

Colonial Life.—What was true of Robinson Crusoe 
was true of the whole world once, before people learned 
to cooperate. This was true even in the United States, 
in the colonial period. Every farm or plantation 
produced nearly everything that the people living 
on it needed. All the food was raised on the place 
or killed in hunting. The wool was clipped from 
the sheep; and carded, spun on a spinning-wheel, woven 
into cloth, and the cloth cut and sewed into clothes 
by the women of the plantation. The ironwork was 
also done on the place; and bullets were molded 
out of lead by the children. All that the people had 
to buy were powder and lead and tea. Everything 
else was supplied by the farm or plantation. There 
were not many physicians in those days; the women 
of the family doctored the sick with medicines made 
from herbs. Bad teeth were pulled with strings. Often 
there were no churches, and then the head of 
the family sometimes held prayers. Nearly all the 
40 



Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 
(41 ) Old Method of Spinning 


: 








functions of life were performed on the farm or plan¬ 
tation itself. 

Modern Life.—Why do we not live in this way to¬ 
day? Because we have come to see that the old manner 
of living is wasteful. If a man has to do a dozen things i 
he cannot give time enough to any one activity to 



Making Cottage Cheese 


become expert in it. We have learned that we can 
accomplish more by doing one thing to the best of our 
ability and by depending on other people to do other 
things for us. Thus one man becomes a farmer and 
gives all of his time and attention to raising cotton or 
wheat and corn. When he wants shoes, he sells a part 
of his farm products and buys them. When he has 

42 





need of a doctor or dentist, lie sells something and goes 
to town to be treated. The shoemaker does nothing 
but make shoes, and by doing this for the farmer he 
gets flour and meat. Likewise, the doctor and dentist, 
by treating the farmer, earn their food. When the 
farmer wishes amusement, he takes some of the money 



Making Lard 

he receives for his wheat and goes to a moving-picture 
show. The moving pictures are made by managers 
and actors who spend their whole time in doing this 
one thing, relying on the farmer to give them food in 
exchange for entertainment. 

Cooperation. —In this way, everybody in the com¬ 
munity who makes an honest living helps everybody 

43 






else. By such cooperation the community thrives. 
The blacksmith who shoes horses and repairs farming 
implements helps the farmer in his work of growing 
food. The clothing factory makes clothes for him; 
the shoe factory makes shoes for him; the lawyer pro¬ 
tects his property; the doctor and dentist attend to his 
health; the moving pictures furnish amusement; the 
preacher cares for his soul. The farmer provides food 
and the raw material of clothing for everybody else in 
the community, and everybody else does something 
for the farmer in return. 

The Law of Service. —You will see from this that 
everyone who makes an honest living does good to 
other people—he performs some service for others. 
This is the beautiful law of service. While you are 
earning a living and gaining property for yourself, you 
are at the same time helping your fellow men. You are 
feeding them, or clothing them, or curing them, or 
amusing them, or elevating them, or helping them in 
some other way. 

Idleness. —In every community there are people 
who will not work—that is, will not perform any 
service for other people. There are young men who 
lounge around country stores, or pool rooms in towns 
and cities. There are young women who never learn 
to do any useful work, such as cooking and sewing, but 
spend all of their time in seeking pleasure. These 
persons wish to live without doing anything; they wish 
to have food and clothes and shelter given them by 
others without giving anything to others in return. We 
say that they consume and do not produce. Such 
persons are of little worth to their communities. 

44 


Club Activities 


1. Make a list of the occupations in your community. Tell what 
preparation is needed for each. 

2. List the occupations which you consider most useful to the 
community. 

3. Answer these questions: 

What occupation do you expect to take up when you are through 
school? What are you doing to get ready for it? What 
studies will help you prepare for it? 

Why does a stenographer get a higher salary than a waitress? 

Why should a rich young man engage in business or other work 
rather than spend his time in idleness? 

4. Find out whether there are any cooperative markets in operation 
in your section. If there are, tell all you can about them. 

5. Trace the growth of some of our industries, as, for instance, the 
making of cloth. 

6. Write a short paper on “What I Wish to Do When I am Grown." 


45 


CHAPTER VII 
A HEALTH LESSON 

Problems: (1) To study health conditions of the com¬ 
munity; and (2) to plan ways of improving them. 

A Typhoid Story.—Mary Cardwell was a bright 
sixth grade schoolgirl living in the village of Pleasant 
View. Late in the summer she was stricken with 
typhoid fever and for many days her life was despaired 
of. She finally recovered from the fever but was 
several months in regaining her health and strength. 
When she re-entered school in the first week of Novem¬ 
ber, she found herself far behind her classmates. At 
the end of the term, Mary failed for the first time in 
her school life. 

Cause of Illness.—Why did Mary have typhoid? 
Nobody knew at first, because the water supply of the 
village was good and there had been no epidemic of 
fever. Finally, an inspector sent by the state board 
of health came to Pleasant View and spent two days 
working on the case. He succeeded in tracing the 
fever to the farm of a small dairyman who supplied 
Mary’s family with milk. The dairyman’s daughter 
was ill with the fever at the time of the inspector’s 
visit and died soon after. The inspector found every¬ 
thing about the dairy farm dirty and illy kept. The 
house was not screened against flies; the stable was in 
a filthy condition, and one of the boys on the place 
milked the cows without washing his hands. The 
46 


result of such carelessness was that the farmer’s 
daughter was taken with typhoid fever and Mary 
Cardwell contracted it from the same source. But 
for the inspector’s visit, many more people might 
have been stricken. 

Community Health.—This case will give you some 
idea of the importance of health regulations for the 
protection of the community. In old days, there were 
no health rules, and then smallpox, typhoid fever, 
and diphtheria visited whole towns and counties, 
causing many deaths. Nowadays there are laws for 
health protection, and all cities have health officers to 
enforce them. The counties do not always have health 
officers of their own, but the state board of health 
does a great work in making known to the country 
people the means of preventing disease. In cities 
there are regulations for protecting the milk supply 
and inspectors to enforce them. Persons violating the 
regulations are punished. Dairies are kept clean and 
the milk is put in bottles, which must be scalded 
before being used again. Milkers must wash their 
hands before milking. Houses where cases of contagious 
diseases exist, together with their occupants, are 
quarantined. In many cities the water supply is 
treated with chemicals or filtered, in order to prevent 
typhoid fever. Children are vaccinated against small¬ 
pox. In the great influenza epidemic of 1918, schools, 
churches, and theaters were closed to prevent the 
spread of the disease. 

Health Departments.—We have seen that cities, 
and sometimes counties, have health departments and 
these departments make and enforce rules about 
47 


quarantines, the water supply, plumbing, trash and 
garbage, stables and pigpens, and about other health 
matters. In some communities the health board em¬ 
ploys physicians, school and visiting nurses, inspectors, 
chemists and bacteriologists to protect the public 
health and give aid to sick people who have not adequate 
means to care for themselves. There is much less sick- 



Story Telling at a Children’s Hospital 


ness and death in such communities than in others 
where less attention is paid to health. In some cities 
mothers are given instruction in the feeding and care 
of babies, in order to prevent the many deaths that 
would otherwise occur. In all cities of any size, there 
are hospitals for the treatment of sick people at public 
expense. All of the states have departments of health, 
which care for the health of the people. If a certain 
48 









disease, such as typhoid, breaks out in a section of the 
state, an inspector is sent to search for the cause. 
Cases of contagious diseases are studied, and epidemics 
are carefully looked into in order to prevent other 
outbreaks. Tons of literature are sent out to the 
people of the state telling them how to keep from having 
typhoid, hookworm, and other diseases. Diphtheria 


t Modern Health Crusaders Giving a Play 

and anti-tvphoid vaccine are sometimes given free of 
charge. No department of the state government is 
busier than the board of health, and no money that 
the people pay in taxes is better expended. Money 
spent on disease prevention earns a return a thousand 
times over. 

Modern Health Crusade. —Many people are deeply 
49 



interested in spreading information regarding health 
and in teaching children good health habits. The 
Modern Health Crusade was organized to carry on 
this great work. Have you joined it? Millions of 
children are members of the organization, which teaches 
them how to care for their bodies. Here are the 
“Health Chores,” to be done each day by all those 
who become Modern Health Crusaders: 

1. I washed my hands before each meal today and before 
handling food prepared for eating. 

2. I gave thorough attention to personal cleanliness 
today. I endeavored to keep both myself and my immediate 
surroundings neat. 

3. I kept out of my mouth and nose today every object 
that I have reason to consider unclean or injurious to my 
health. 

4. I brushed my teeth thoroughly before breakfast and 
after the evening meal today. 

5. I took ten or more slow, deep breaths of fresh air 
today. If I spit, coughed, or sneezed, I was careful to pro¬ 
tect others. 

6. I had more than thirty minutes of muscular exercise 
or active play outdoors or with windows open today. 

7. I was in bed ^ ^mlf) ^ ours or more last night and kept 
my windows open. 

8. I drank six glasses of water today, including one before 
each meal. I drank nothing that I have reason to consider 
injurious to my health. 

9. I was careful today (1) to eat only wholesome foods, 
meeting the varied requirements of nutrition and promoting 
proper bowel action; (2) to chew thoroughly; and (3) to 
attend to each need of my body at its regular time. 

10. I endeavored today to maintain a straight posture, 
standing and sitting; to keep my thoughts clean, cheerful, 
courageous, and constructive; and to be helpful to others. 

50 


11. I took a full bath on each of those days of the week 
that are checked (X). 

Club Activities 

1. Discuss some rules made by the health department of your 
community. 

2. Name some diseases that are quarantined in your community. 

3. Mention some rules a consumptive should follow for the protection 
of those with whom he lives and works. 

4. Appoint a committee to inspect the school premises and report on 
how the health of the pupils can be better protected. 

5. Appoint a committee to gather newspaper clippings relating to the 
health of the community. Post these clippings on the bulletin board. 

6. Let each member of the class tell of one thing he has done to make 
his home more healthful. 

7. Get the secretary of your Junior Citizens Club to write to the 
National Tuberculosis Association, 381 Fourth Avenue, New York City, 
for full particulars about the Modern Health Crusade and see if your club 
will not vote in favor of introducing it in your class. 

8. Decide what steps should be taken when unsanitary conditions are 
found in your community. 


51 


CHAPTER VIII 

THRIFT 

Problems: (1) To study the benefits of thrift; and (2) 
to establish a school savings bank. 

Waste.—A feature of the savage the world over is 
improvidence. “Eat, drink, and be merry, for to¬ 
morrow you die, ” is his motto. When the savage kills 
game, he gorges himself so that he can hardly move; 
he seldom puts away any of the food for winter and 
hard times. When winter comes he starves. Even in 
the most civilized communities there are people who 
are as thriftless as savages. They spend all the money 
they get on the desire of the moment and make no 
provision for the “rainy day.” Then when trouble 
comes they are dependent on the charity of their 
neighbors. Such people are not entirely civilized. 
They still have the savage’s improvidence. What 
distinguishes civilization above all other things is its 
vast capital, and capital is simply wealth, or money 
that has been saved. All the buildings you see, and 
all the other property, are the result of saving. When 
you look at a great skyscraper, remember that it could 
never have been constructed if people had not saved 
the money to build it. The railroad you travel on was 
also built by savings, and the same thing is true of all 
the houses, factories, and steamships. The tallest 
building in the world, the Woolworth Building in 
New York, resulted from the savings of the owner of 
52 


a chain of five and ten cent stores. In some parts of 
the world there are no railways, no churches, no fac¬ 
tories, no schoolhouses, or any of the other comforts of 
our life. The reason for this condition is the people 
in that part of the world have not produced and 
saved wealth. They are satisfied with what nature 
gives them and do not seek to make money and keep 
it. Needless to say, these regions are ignorant and 
backward. 

Savings Banks. —The man who saves is a help to 
the community. It is not enough to make money; we 
must save it. If the people in a town have earned ten 
thousand dollars in a week and if a circus comes on 
Saturday and carries away the greater part of the ten 
thousand dollars, the town is little better off as a result 
of that week’s work. But if the ten thousand dollars 
goes into savings banks, it will remain in the town and 
bring a return to the owners. 

A School Savings System. —Have you a savings 
account? If you have not, you should lose no time 
in opening one. The boy or girl who does not learn to 
save in school will not be likely to save afterward. 
Such habits are formed in youth or not at all. Hun¬ 
dreds of schools have put in savings systems. Each 
student who opens an account is given a pass book or 
card in which is entered his deposits as he makes them. 
The money is placed in a bank and interest is paid on 
the deposits. Have you a savings system in your 
school? If you have not, discuss the matter at the 
next meeting of the Junior Citizens Club and appoint 
a committee to work out a scheme for a savings system. 
The great advantage of the school savings plan is that 
53 


a student may deposit any amount—cents, nickels, and 
dimes—while in regular savings banks the smallest 
amount accepted in opening an account is a dollar. 

Postal Savings.—Another good way of saving is to 
invest in Postal Savings. Postal Savings stamps are 
sold at post offices by the United States government. 
A stamp costs ten cents. When the buyer has pasted 



Children Depositing in a School Savings Bank 


ten stamps on a Postal Savings Card, he can exchange 
the card for one Treasury Savings Stamp. This stamp 
is pasted on a Treasury Savings Card, which has spaces 
for twenty stamps. When this is filled, the buyer may 
receive twenty dollars or exchange it for a Treasury 
Savings Certificate worth twenty-five dollars in five 
years. 

Thrift Maxims. —The great men of the world have 
54 







usually understood the value of thrift and practiced it. 
The following are a few of their sayings on this subject: 

Economy makes happy homes and sound nations. In¬ 
still it deep.— George Washington. 

The way to wealth is as plain as the way to market. 
It chiefly depends on two words—industry, frugality.— 
Benjamin Franklin. 

Teach economy. That is one of the first and highest 
virtues. It begins with saving money.-— Abraham Lincoln. 

The man who does not and cannot save money cannot 
and will not do anything else worth while.— Andrew 
Carnegie. 

Make all you can; save all you can; give all you can.— 

John Wesley. 

Thrift is such a simple thing—and it means so much. It 
is the foundation of success in business, of contentment in 
the house, of standing in society.— Russell Sage. 

No boy ever becomes great as a man who did not, in his 
youth, learn to save money.—J ohn Wanamaker. 

If the young man ever expects to succeed in business he 
must be economical. No matter how small the sum the boy 
or young man is receiving, he should always save a portion 
of his income.— Henry C. Lytton. 

It’s hard for an empty bag to stand upright.— Benjamin 
Franklin. 


Club Activities 

1. Mention different ways by which boys and girls may earn money. 

2. Discuss this problem: Mary who is twelve years old is given an allow¬ 
ance of fifty cents a week. Tell how much she should spend per week for 
the following it«rru: 

Amusements. 

Church and Sunday school. 

Charity. 

Savings account. 

3. Make plans for establishing a savings bank in your school. 

55 


CHAPTER IX 

THE GOOD CITIZEN 

Problems: To find out (1) what are the qualities of a 
good citizen; and (2) how you may be one now. 

The Boy or Girl Citizen. —Can a boy or girl be a 
good citizen? Yes, you can be a good citizen now. 
Here are some of the things boys and girls may do. 
Study them carefully and see if you can give a reason 
why each of them helps you to be a good citizen: 

The good citizen takes care of his health. 

He is clean in person and neat in dress. 

He exercises self-control. 

He is law-abiding. 

He is generous. 

He loves fair play. 

He practices thrift. 

He is courteous to classmates. 

He works with and for his group. 

He is honest, truthful, and courageous. 

The Citizen at School.—In your school life you 
will have a daily opportunity to become a good citizen. 
You can show consideration for others by entering 
the school building quietly and by doing nothing in 
the schoolroom to interfere with the rights of your 
classmates. You can take part in all class activities 
and learn how to cooperate with others. On the play- 
56 


ground you will have many chances to develop team¬ 
work and to stand for fair play. 

Qualities of Good Citizenship. —The good citizen 
has the following primary virtues: ability to cooperate, 
industry, honesty, and thrift. These are very necessary 
qualities, and because the majority of Americans pos¬ 
sess them the United States is the greatest country 
on earth. But another quality is needed in the make¬ 
up of the good citizen. Industry, honesty, and thrift 
have to do with our own immediate concerns: they 
are the qualities we use in our daily work, in dealing 
with the people wi«th whom we come in contact. The 
one other thing needful in the good citizen is the 
performance of public duty. Public duty is the du.ty 
one owes to all the members of the community—*the 
community of the town or county, the state and 
the nation. 

Voting. —There are duties we owe the government 
as well as the body of our fellow men. These duties 
are called political duties. Nobody is a thoroughly 
good citizen, no matter how honest and industrious 
he is, who neglects such duties. The reason for this 
is that bad men will come to control the government 
if good men fail to take interest in it. Sometimes 
you may hear a man say that he will not vote, that 
he will have nothing to do with politics. But whether 
he does or does not have anything to do with politics, 
politics will have something to do with him. The wel¬ 
fare and happiness of all depend, in no small degree, on 
the kind of government we have. We cannot have a 
good government when citizens are careless. This is a 
danger at the present time. There are thousands of 
57 



Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 

Voting by Ballot Box 








educated people who neglect to take any part in the 
government of the country. They pay no attention to 
public questions and they do not vote: they are 
shirkers. To read about public questions in the news¬ 
papers is somewhat troublesome, but it is a duty that 
every citizen of a free country owes that country. 
When you get old enough to vote, inform yourself 
upon the questions of the day, register your name, 
and pay your poll tax. Then vote in every election. 

Club Activities 

1. Name some other virtues which a good citizen ought to possess in 
addition to those listed in the lesson. 

2. Tell how books, magazines, and newspapers help to make good 
citizens. 

3. Discuss in class these questions: 

Can an ignorant person be a good citizen? 

Is a grown person who fails to vote a good citizen? 

4. Prepare a class poster for your schoolroom setting forth the most 
important virtues to be possessed by boys and girls who are good citizens. 
The poster may be made by inviting each pupil to prepare a poster or by 
the appointment of committees. The poster should be approved by vote 
of the class before bein ( g posted. 


59 


CHAPTER X 
OUR CITY 

Problems: (1) To study your city (or the nearest city); 
and (2) to discuss plans for making a “City Beautiful.’’ 

The Manufacturing Section.—Let us take a ride over 
a city. We will first go into the manufacturing section. 
Here we see a great factory from which comes the 
steady hum of machinery. Perhaps it is an iron works, 
and the flash from the forges gleams through the 
windows. Perhaps it is a shoe factory, and we hear 
the clatter of the sewing machines. There are factories 
of many sorts in this part of the city, each of them 
contributing to the wealth of the community. 

Office Buildings.—Let us turn now into the office¬ 
building section. Here we pass skyscrapers filled with 
the offices of business men and lawyers, and the street 
swarms with hurrying people bent on making a living 
for their families. Here, too, are the banks, and 
crowds of men and women are going in and coming 
out of them. This section is the real heart of the city, 
the place where the business is done that brings pros¬ 
perity to the community. 

The Shopping District.—Next we go to the shopping- 
district. Here we see few men but crowds of women. 
This is the most attractive part of the city. The streets 
are lined with shops displaying every kind of goods. 
Now and then we come to a great department store, 
with immense plate-glass windows, running the length 
60 


of a block. If it is near Christmas, this is the busiest 
part of the town, for people are buying Christmas 
gifts. Everywhere there are toys and candy and the 
other things that children like. 

The City Hall. —The city hall is the home of the 
city government—the city capitol. Here the officers 
of the local government have their offices, and here 
are the courts. People come to the city hall to pay 
taxes, to get permits for various purposes, to record 



The John Handley Public Schools, Winchester, Va. 


deeds, and for all the other reasons that bring them 
into contact with the government. 

The Residential Section. —Leaving the business 
section, we ride past large hotels into the residential 
portion of the city. Here we see street after street of 
dwelling houses, some of them neat and small, some 
of them fine and large. Now and then we come to a 
park offering recreation and a breathing space in the 
wilderness of houses. From time to time we see a 
schoolhouse, and if we are strangers in the city we will 
judge it largely by the look of the schoolhouses. If 
61 




they are well built and modern in appearance, we may 
know that the city is prosperous and progressive. 
Nothing tells more of the character of a community 
than its schoolhouses. 

As you know, the people of a city elect officers to 
pass laws and carry on the public work of the com¬ 
munity. In this chapter we wish you to make a study 
of what the city does for the good of the people. 

The Streets.— One of the most important public 
works of the city government is the care of the streets. 
We cannot get out of our homes to play or go to school 
without using the streets. Can you imagine a city 
without well-paved streets? Well, it has not been so 
many years since streets were paved with roughest 
cobblestones or not paved at all. In some towns wagons 
were stalled in the mud of the streets in winter time, 
and people crossed them with difficulty. Formerly 
in many places, it was the custom to throw trash of all 
sorts in the streets and leave it thereto decay. Do 
you think that such streets were pleasant or healthy? 
They were not, and public-spirited citizens urged 
improvement until intelligent care was given to the 
highways. Nowadays in all cities worthy of the name 
the streets are cleaned and kept in repair, so that even 
in the worst weather, and soon after a snowfall, they 
are just as passable as in summer. The good streets 
that we enjoy are one of the features of modern 
civilization. 

The Police. —What would you do if some one were 
to annoy or threaten you on the street? Your first 
thought would be of the police, those protectors of the 
people. If a policeman were in sight, you would feel 
62 


that your troubles were over—that you were safe. 
You would call to him, or he would come of his own 
accord if he saw that you needed help. In homes and 
schools, in moving-picture theaters, on the streets, 
in church, and everywhere we go, we are protected 
by the police. This was not always the case. In 
olden times there were no police to protect citizens. 
Life and property were both very unsafe before the 
government took into its hands the matter of caring 
for citizens. Nowadays the police are always at work, 
hunting down criminals, arresting people as they 
break the laws, and protecting houses, banks, and 
stores from thieves and burglars. Another important 
work they do is to regulate traffic. By their efforts 
the thousands of automobiles and trucks pass through 
the crowded streets with few accidents. But for the 
police there would be many accidents each day, and 
all traffic would be dangerous. So you see that the 
money spent in supporting the police force is well 
expended, since the welfare of us all depends on the 
sturdy “guardians of the law/’ 

The Fire Department. —The city has laws for the 
prevention of fires. However, since there are fires, 
the city also maintains a fire department; but for 
the fire department a large part of each city would be 
burned frequently and many lives would be lost. In 
spite of the great size of modern cities and the tall 
buildings, fires were much more numerous once than 
they are now. Owing to our fire departments, most 
fires are put out before much damage is done, and not 
very many people lose their lives in burning buildings. 
Only a few generations ago, cities did not have regular 
63 


fire departments. Fires were put out by volunteer 
fire companies. These volunteers would leave their 
work at the sound of the fire bell and come running 
to the firehouse to drag the hose through the streets 
to the burning building. Needless to say, this method 
was ineffective, and regular fire departments were 



Photograph by Publishers Photo Service 


A Modern Fire Engine 

found necessary. The fireman, like the policeman, 
is one of our best friends. Like the policeman, he 
follows a dangerous calling. In all large cities firemen 
lose their lives in fighting the flames and saving the 
property of citizens. 

The Public Library.—Another public service per¬ 
formed by most cities is the maintenance of free 
libraries. Usually there is a central city library, 
64 





with branches in various parts of the town. These 
libraries are of the utmost value to the community. 
They enable high school and college students to go 
more deeply into subjects than school libraries do.; 
they offer grown people of little education a means of 


Photograph by Publishers Photo Service 

Scene in Rainier National Park 

cultivating themselves in their spare time; they afford 
thousands of people innocent recreation without cost. 
Most city libraries have children’s rooms where boys 
and girls may read books. Have you a public library 
in your city? 

Parks and Playgrounds. —You have no doubt 
heard of Central Park in New York City. This park, 
one of the largest in the world, is daily visited by 
65 



thousands of people, especially women and children, 
who wish to get away from stuffy tenement houses and 
hot streets. It is a lake of green vegetation ^mid 
the grim stone desert of the mighty city—a place to 
benefit the body and refresh the mind. The land 
which Central Park occupies is worth many mil¬ 
lions of dollars, but the city thinks that the money 



Courtesy of Miss Emilie Yunker 


Vacant Lot Transformed into a Park 

is well invested in maintaining this breathing place 
for the people of New York. In the same way, every 
city keeps parks of varying size and attractiveness. 
One of the most beautiful, if not the most beautiful, in 
the country is Druid Hill Park at Baltimore. In 
addition to the parks, which are usually playgrounds 
as well, in many cities there are playgrounds especially 

66 









maintained for children. Does your city have parks 
and playgrounds to help make it a 44 City Beautiful”? 
If it does not, it fails to do its full duty both to the 
grown people and the children. They must have such 
open spaces and playgrounds if they are to be healthy 
and happy. 


Club Activities 

1. Make a list of things done by the city in addition to those outlined 
in this chapter. 

2. Write a list of the leading articles manufactured in your city. 

3. Make a list of the places of historic interest. 

4. Write a list of the city offices, with the names of the officers if you 
can get them. 

5. Describe the most beautiful street in your town or city. 

6. Describe the most beautiful park you have seen. 

7. Find out how your city gets money to carry on its work. 

8. Write a composition on your city, telling about its history, indus¬ 
tries, and attractions. 

9. Discuss these questions in class: 

Who is more useful, the policeman or the fireman? 

Which are more important, parks or libraries? 

10. Carry out a definite undertaking that will make your city more 
beautiful. The picture on the opposite page illustrates the work of school 
children in Louisville, Kentucky. 

11. Invite a city official to talk to you about the work of the city. 


67 


CHAPTER XI 

OUR COUNTY 

Problems: To discuss (1) another unit, the county; 
and (2) the advantages of country life. 

Country Life.—About one half of all the boys and 
girls in the United States live either on farms or in 
small towns and villages. You will often hear people 
speak of the 4 ‘advantages of the city,” but if you live 
in the country you will know of the advantages of the 
country. The average person is probably better off 
in the country than in the city, because of the fresh 
air and the outdoor life. Most city work is done indoors, 
not out in the sunshine. Living in the city is very 
costly, because rents are high and most people do not 
own their homes and because there are many expenses 
people do not have in the country. The country 
dweller does not pay the high city taxes. His taxes 
are usually small, because the country does not keep 
up departments requiring the services of large numbers 
of persons. Crime is less frequent in the country 
than in cities, as criminals usually live in towns. 

Roads and Bridges.—There is much that the 
county does for its citizens. When you leave your home 
for school, you probably pass over a concrete bridge. 
That bridge was put there by the county. You may 
travel for several miles on a good road. The county 
made that road. Country people pay higher taxes 
than they used to do, but they are willing to pay 
68 


more and have beautiful roads in place of the mud 
lanes of the old days. Indeed, good roads have made 
living in the country a different thing from former 
times. Formerly people were often kept at home for 
months at a time because of the muddy roads. At 
present, the country boy and the country girl find 
little difficulty in going to school or church or visiting 
at any season of the year. 

Schools. —The county also spends much more tax 
money on schools than it used to do. Once upon a 
time the good schools were in the city and the poor 
schools in the country. Sometimes the buildings were 
log cabins, unworthy of the name of schools. The 
teachers knew little, and the students used books that 
had been in service for many years and were torn and 
dirty. All that is changed now. There are large and 
beautiful schoolhouses, many of them consolidated 
schools, in every country section of the United States; 
the school term has been much lengthened; the 
teachers are graduates of normal schools and receive 
fair salaries. If you live in a county which has good 
school buildings, a nine-months term, and well-paid 
teachers, you have a right to be proud of it. It is a 
progressive county. 

Protecting Life and Property. —In the country, 
citizens are sometimes called on to help protect the 
community from lawless men. Every county has its 
sheriff or constable who is paid to look out for the 
safety of the community. Usually the sheriff is a 
brave and competent man. If a crime is committed, 
he arrests the criminal, alone or with the help of several 
deputy sheriffs. If a dangerous criminal defies the law, 
69 



the sheriff calls on all good citizens to help him, and 
these citizens are sworn in as policemen for the occasion. 
The sheriff and his helpers then go, with guns and 
pistols, and arrest the lawbreaker. Often sheriffs and 
deputies are killed in the doing of their duty, but 
danger does not deter them. In spite of the fact that 
there are no regular policemen in the country, life 


Courthouse at Williamsburg, James City County, Va. 

and property are safer there than in cities. Crime 
is rare in the country at a distance from cities. 

The Courthouse. —Each county has a county seat 
which corresponds to the capital of a state or to Wash¬ 
ington, the capital of the nation. At the county seat 
are the courthouse, the clerk’s office, and the jail. 
The courthouse and the clerk’s office correspond to the 
city hall of the town. There cases are tried before 
70 





/ 


the circuit court, records are preserved and examined, 
and taxes are paid. Prisoners are kept in the county 
jail. Most of the-county officials, such as the superin¬ 
tendent of schools, the sheriff, the treasurer, and the 
commonwealth’s attorney, have their offices at the 
county seat. You have, no doubt, often visited your 
county seat and seen the courthouse and other buildings. 
Perhaps you have been there on court day, when cases 
were being tried and the people for miles around came 
to hear them. When you are grown, you will have 
to do your part as a citizen of your county. You will 
serve on juries; you will vote for the county officials 
and you will pay taxes—perhaps you will run for the 
legislature and represent your county at the state 
capital. 

Club Activities 

1. Make a list of the leading crops of your county. 

2. Make a list of the manufactured articles which your county sends 
to other sections. 

3. Make a list of food products brought into your county. 

4. Make a list of your county officers and tell their duties. 

5. Invite a citizen to talk to your club on the early history of your 
county. 

6. Discuss in class this question: Which is the better place in which to 
live, the city or the country? 

7. Draw a map of your county showing the county seat, the principal 
towns and villages, rivers, railroads, and improved highways. 

8. Draw another map showing where schools might well be consolidated. 


71 


\ 



/ 


Rotunda at the University of Virginia 
































CHAPTER XII 
OUR STATE 

Problems: (1) To study a larger unit, the state; and (2) 
to carry out some plans that will make you more familiar 
with your state. 

Work of the State.—We have seen that the home, 
school, and church are communities. We have also 
given some study to larger communities made up of 
homes, churches, and schools—the city and county. 
We come now to a still larger community, made up of 
cities and counties—the state. In this chapter we 
shall learn some of the things the state does for its 
citizens. Just as the city and county perform certain 
duties, the state does certain other things necessary 
to the welfare of its citizens. The city and county 
take care of the streets and roads, give police and 
fire protection, keep up schools, and care for the health 
of the community. The work of the state is similar, 
but in addition it has other activities that counties 
and cities do not attempt. 

Colleges and Public Schools.—All counties and 
cities have schools and high schools, and some cities 
have colleges. The state maintains a university for 
the people of the whole state, as the University of 
Virginia, the University of North Carolina, and the 
University of Indiana. State universities usually have 
schools of law and medicine in addition to under¬ 
graduate college courses. Besides the universities, the 

73 


states, aided by the federal government, maintain, 
agricultural and mechanical colleges, such as the 
Mississippi Agricultural and Mechanical College and 
the Alabama Polytechnic Institute. They maintain 
normal schools and colleges, and in some instances 
colleges of other kinds, such as the Virginia Military 
Institute, and The Citadel, of South Carolina, which 
are military schools much like the United States Mili¬ 
tary Academy at West Point. The states spend millions 
of dollars each year in keeping up these universities and 
colleges, some of which, as the University of Michigan, 
the University of Wisconsin, and the University of 
Illinois, are among the foremost institutions of learning 
in the world. Besides these higher institutions, the 
state aids in maintaining the public schools in the cities 
and counties. In some states, a community receives a 
grant of money from the state to aid in building high 
schools on condition that the community itself raises a 
certain sum. 

Hospitals.—The state also supports hospitals for 
the insane, who are kept in these institutions at the 
expense of the taxpayers. We believe that it is better 
for the government to care for these unfortunate 
people than to have them as a burden on their families 
or their communities. In some states, there are also 
institutions for the feeble-minded, where they receive 
a training which often enables them to earn a living. 
Sanatoriums for consumptives are maintained by 
most states. These valuable hospitals restore to 
health many people who lack the means to go to private 
sanatoriums. 

Imprisonment.—Counties and cities keep jails for 
74 


the imprisonment of persons awaiting trial or those 
convicted of small offenses. Imprisonment for seri¬ 
ous crimes is one of the duties of the state. Persons 
found guilty of stealing large sums, or of burglary, or 
of manslaughter, or sometimes of murder, are sentenced 
to the penitentiary for terms varying from two years 
to a lifetime. In this prison are electric chairs or 
gallows, by which persons who have been convicted of 
murder, or some other “capital” crime, are put to 
death. 

Good Roads.—In recent years the states have 
created highway departments to assist the counties in 
building good roads. In some states, notably New 
York, Pennsylvania, and North Carolina, millions of 
dollars have been spent in this work. The highway 
departments keep engineers whose duty it is to see that 
road making is properly done. 

The Governor.—The head of the state government, 
or the chief executive officer, is the governor. He is 
elected for different terms in different states, usually 
two or four years. The various departments of the 
state government are under the general direction of 
the governor; he has many duties. He appoints some 
officers and sometimes removes them. In some states 
he appoints supreme court judges. He proposes 
measures to the legislature and vetoes bills. The 
governor takes part in most of the honorary activities 
of the state: if a statue is unveiled, he is usually 
present to make a speech; if a great man visits the 
state, the governor welcomes him; he also makes 
addresses at school and college commencements. 
Another important duty of the governor is to provide 
75 


for the protection of the people in cases which the 
police of the cities and the sheriffs of the counties can¬ 
not handle. Sometimes a riot breaks out and much 
damage is done. The rioters may be so numerous that 
they are able to defy the police. Then the governor 
calls out the soldiers, or militia, of the state and sends 
them to the scene of the riot to restore order. 

The Governor and Jerry.—The governor encour¬ 
ages all kinds of movements tending to aid the state. 
A few years ago a boy named Jerry received a letter 
from the governor of his state inviting the lad to visit 
him in his office in the capitol. Jerry was excited at 
receiving a personal invitation from the chief executive 
and gladly accepted it. He lived on a farm several 
miles from the railroad, but his father drove him to 
the station, bought him a ticket, and saw him off to 
the capital. Jerry arrived in the city and went to the 
capitol building. When he entered the governor’s 
outer office in the capitol, he found a large room 
crowded with people waiting to see the great man and 
he felt very small and young: he supposed that he 
would have to wait his turn. But, on the contrary, 
some one came to him and conducted him into the 
governor’s private office. There the governor greeted 
the boy warmly, shook hands with him, patted him 
on the back, and finally pinned on his coat a beautiful 
gold medal. Needless to say, Jerry felt very proud at 
being so highly honored. Why do you suppose he 
received a medal from the governor? Because he 
was the champion corn grower of South Carolina, 
having raised two hundred and twenty-eight bushels 
of corn on one acre of land. The governor knew 
76 


that by honoring Jerry for his ability and industry 
he was encouraging other boys to do likewise, and 
so aiding the development of the community. 

The Courts.—There is also the judicial branch of 
state governments. The courts that try small offenses 
and small “civil cases” in cities are city courts and are 
maintained by the city. The other courts are state 
courts. The lowest of these are the justices’ courts 
in the counties; then come county courts or circuit 
courts. Most states are divided into circuits or dis¬ 
tricts, composed of several counties, and judges ap¬ 
pointed by the state, or elected by the people, preside 
over them. The highest court in the state is the 
supreme court, which deals with all cases brought up 
to it from the lower courts for retrial. In some states 
there are still other courts of a special nature. 

The Legislature.—We have studied in this chapter 
two branches of state government—-the executive and 
judicial. The executive is the branch, presided over by 
the governor, which has to do with the various depart¬ 
ments. The courts form the judicial branch. There is 
still another branch—-the legislative. This is the law¬ 
making part of the government, and the lawmaking 
body of the state is known as the legislature. The 
members of the legislature are elected by the vote of 
the people. It meets in the capitol at certain periods 
and passes laws for the government of the state. 

Club Activities 

1. Prepare a map showing the various state institutions such as col¬ 
leges, normal schools, and hospitals. 

2. Make a list of some of the more important state officers, telling their 
duties. 


77 


3. Answer these questions: 

How did your state get its name? 

When was it admitted to the Union? 

What is the capital city? 

Who is the present governor? 

Who are your representatives in the legislature? 

What great men were born in your state? 

What is its population? 

What are its principal industries? 

How does the state help to support your school? 

How does the state help to build good roads? 

What are some ways in which the state helps the farmer? 

Why is your state “the best state in the Union”? 

How does the state get the necessary money to do its work? 

Why are some lawbreakers sent to the penitentiary while others 
are sent to jail? 

4. Invite one of your representatives in the legislature to talk to you 
about how laws are made. 

5. Collect pamphlets from your state department of agriculture and 
from the chambers of commerce of various cities for your classroom library. 

6. At the next social meeting of the club let each member represent a 
state institution or a state officer. Make this a guessing contest. 


78 


CHAPTER XIII 

OUR NATION 

Problems: (1) To study the largest unit, the nation; 
and (2) to tell of some of its special activities. 

The United States.—We have seen that homes make 
up cities and counties, and that cities and counties 
make up states. We are to consider now the com¬ 
munity that states make up—the largest community 
of which we are members. This is the nation. The 
name of our nation is the United States of America, 
though we speak of it as the United States, and abbre¬ 
viate it as U. S. We sometimes playfully apply the 
letters U. S. to refer to “Uncle Sam,” who is shown in 
comic pictures as a tall, thin man with stars on his 
coat and stripes on his trousers. It would be better, 
perhaps, to say that the two letters stand for US; for 
our country consists simply of the men, women, and 
children who live under the star-spangled banner. The 
United States is a country that belongs to the whole 
people. 

The Land of the Free.—Sometimes the United 
States is called “the Land of the Free.” Do you know 
what is meant by that term? Before the Revolution, 
the United States consisted of colonies of England, 
subject to the English king. They could not make 
laws without the king’s consent, and the English 
Parliament sought to lay taxes on them for the benefit 
of England. This led to the memorable American 
79 


Revolution (1775-1783), which resulted in the United 
States winning its liberty under the leadership of 
George Washington; since that time the American 
people have had no king to govern them. The chief 
ruler is the President. In 1776, Thomas Jefferson 
wrote in the Declaration of Independence that, all men 
have the right to be free. In America the people 
elect their President. Congress, which consists of the 
Senate and the House of Representatives, is also elected 
by the people. In the Capitol at Washington, where 
Congress meets, the United States Supreme Court 
sits. This is the highest court in the land and the 
members are appointed by the President for life. 
Washington, the capital of the United States, is a city 
of wide streets, beautiful parks, and fine government 
buildings. You will probably visit the national capital 
some day in order to see these buildings and Congress 
in session. Then you may wonder if you are destined 
to be a Congressman and to take part in making your 
country’s laws. 

Coinage. —The national government has many 
important duties. One of the principal things it does 
is to make money. Once upon a time the states made 
money, and even cities have done so. This may seem 
odd to you, but it is a fact. In the Revolutionary War, 
both the United States and the states issued large 
quantities of paper money; but after the United States 
adopted its present system of government, under what 
is called the Constitution, the right of making money 
was taken away from the states and from all other 
bodies. Only the national government makes money. 
The United States makes the coin used in the country 
80 


in several money factories, called mints. Perhaps you 
will visit the great mint at Philadelphia some day. 
Here metallic money is minted. Red-hot gold, silver, 
nickel, and copper run into molds, and great presses 
stamp imprints on the metal disks as they come from 
the molds. Then the coins are ready to be exchanged 
for food and clothing and everything else that people 
buy. 

Paper Money.—The United States makes paper 
money in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing at 
Washington. These are silver and gold certificates 
and the bank notes issued by the Federal Reserve 
System and by other authorized banks.* These forms 
of paper money vary in color and in wording but 
are otherwise similar. There is not much difference 
between one-dollar and one-thousand-dollar bills. Have 
you ever seen a hundred-dollar or a thousand-dollar 
bill? The government even issues a ten-thousand-dollar 
bill, but few such bills are made because people do not 
need large single pieces of money. Imagine going into 
a store and asking the storekeeper to change a ten- 
thousand-dollar bill! Do you think he could do it? 
Only workmen of the highest skill are employed in 
engraving paper money, and only fine paper of a 
singular kind is used. This paper is full of silk threads 
and other marks in order to prevent persons, called 
counterfeiters , from trying to make money just like it 
and deceiving and robbing people with the false bills. 
Counterfeit money was once very plentiful; it is now 
rare, because the difficulties of making an exact imi¬ 
tation of bills are so great that counterfeiters are 
usually promptly found out and arrested. 

81 



The Post Office. —Another duty undertaken by the 
national government, and not by the city and the 
county or the state, is that of sending and distributing 
mail. Once upon a time letters were sent by private 
business companies, just as express packages are 
today. But this was such an expensive system that 
the government took over the post office itself and 


A Parcel Post Delivery Truck 

charged a small fee for carrying letters. Benjamin 
Franklin established the postal system of the United 
States before the Revolution. When he became Post¬ 
master-General of the colonies, there were only seventy- 
five post offices in America; now there are many 
thousand. When Franklin was postal chief it took 
weeks to send a letter from New York to Charleston; 
now it takes only a few days to send a letter from New 
82 





York to San Francisco. Thousands of people are 
employed as postmasters and clerks, and the amount 
of mail handled amounts to millions of tons annually. 
Not only letters are carried: you may send almost 
any package you wish by the Parcel Post for a small 
fee and you may send money by the Money Order. 
You may also deposit the money you save in the 
Postal Savings Banks. The government not only 
delivers mail in the city but in the* country as well. 
The Rural Free Delivery takes mail to every part of 
the country—in some cases many miles from any town. 
The accuracy and speed of the system are such that 
letters are seldom lost and are sent from one part of the 
country to another in a short time. Letters that are 
lost are usually lost because of the carelessness of the 
writers. Every year millions of letters go to the Dead 
Letter Office at Washington because the writers have 
addressed them illegibly or because they have sent 
them to the wrong addresses. 

The Government is Yours. —You see that the 
national government does a great many things for you. 
The money you earn and spend is good because the 
authority and credit of the government are behind it. 
The letters you write to your friends go for a trifling 
fee to their addresses because the government carries 
them. The banking system of the country is largely 
under the management of the government. Later on 
you will find that the railroads and many other activi¬ 
ties of the country are mainly under governmental 
control. The government works for you and belongs 
to you. The President in the White House is taking 
measures for your safety and welfare; Congress passes 
83 


laws to protect you; the Supreme Court of the United 
States looks out for your rights as a citizen. If you 
realize that the national government is yours, you will 
be a better and more useful citizen because you will be 
willing to do your part toward making the government 
a success. 

Club Activities 

1. Name as many different postage stamps as you can. 

2. Get some member of your class to tell how to send a package by 
parcel post. 

3. Answer these questions: 

When was Washington inaugurated President and where? 

How many of our Presidents have been assassinated? 

Can you name some things which the nation alone has the right 
to do? 

Who is your Representative in Congress? 

Why would it be unwise to let private individuals and states 
issue money? 

If the baby at home should tear into small pieces a twenty-dollar 
bill, would there be any way to redeem it? 

Why do you think the government stopped coining one-dollar 
and two-and-a-half-dollar gold pieces? 


84 


PART TWO 

CHAPTER XIV 

THE JUNIOR CITIZENS CLUB REORGANIZED 

Problem: To reorganize your Junior Citizens Club. 

Reorganizing Your Club.—In the opening chapter 
of this book suggestions were given for organizing your 
class into a civics club. (See page 13.) The first 
thing to do on resuming the study of civics is to re¬ 
organize your club by electing a full set of officers. 
The next step is to plan some work to be carried on 
during the present term. Club meetings should be 
held weekly or at least twice a month. You are now 
prepared to have short debates at your meetings, and 
you may wish to give a play or a historical pageant. 
Your club can also do something for the improvement 
of the community. The following is a stenographic 
report of the meeting of a school club. Read it carefully. 
It will suggest work for your organization. 

A Meeting of a Junior Citizens Club 

Teacher: It is now two o’clock and time for the 
Junior Citizens Club to hold its regular meeting. The 
officers will come forward and take charge. 

The president and secretary advance to the front 
of the room and occupy chairs at the teacher’s desk. 

The President: We will open our meeting by 
standing and repeating our class pledge: 

85 


We will never bring disgrace to our school, city, or 
country. 

We will obey our school, city, and country’s laws. 

We will stand for the right, with others or alone. 

We will aid the poor, the old, the you'ng, and all who 
need help. 

We pledge allegiance to the flag of our country and our 
earnest efforts to keep ourselves worthy of that flag. 

The President: The secretary will please read 
the minutes of the last meeting. 

The secretary reads the minutes of the last meeting 
from a blank book kept for the purpose. 

1 The President: Are the minutes correct? 

Frank Brown: Mr. President, the minutes, as 
read, state that I was appointed a member of the 
Program Committee. This is not correct. I was 
added to the Committee on School Grounds. 

The President: You are right. The secretary 
will please make this correction. If there are no other 
objections to the minutes, I declare them approved. 

The President: We will now have the report of 
the treasurer. 

Treasurer: Mr. President, I make the following 
report: 

Balance on hand from last month . $4.60 


Receipts from dues . -.65 

Profits on sale of candy for library 

books. 2.10 


Total balance on hand. . $7.35 

The President: If there is no objection, the 
treasurer’s report will be filed with the secretary, who 
will record it in the minutes. We will now hear from 
our standing committees. 


86 




Susie Lowe: Mr. President, as chairman of the 
Room Committee I wish to report that we have talked 
with two members of the club who continually drop 
paper on the floor. Both have promised to stop 
this practice and they seem to be living up to their 
promise. I wish further to report that the plants 
you see in the windows were given to the class by 
Mrs. Bowers, the mother of our fellow club member,. 
Frank Bowers. 

The President: What will you do with this report? 

Maude Elam: Mr. President, I move that our 
secretary write a note of thanks to Mrs. Bowers for 
the flowers she- has given us. 

Abraham Levy: Mr. President, I second Maude’s 
motion. 

The President: All who favor this motion will 
say “Aye.” The vote is unanimous. The secretary 
will write the letter and read it tomorrow at the Current 
Events period. 

The President: We will now hear from the 
Committee on School Grounds. 

James Cabot: We think that too much waste 
paper is left on the school grounds at the noon hour. 
We went to our principal and asked him to get two 
waste paper barrels. He agreed to do this if our club 
would appoint a committee of three to report to him 
all who fail to put lunch wrappers n the barrels. We 
therefore recommend the appointment of such a 
committee. 

The President: What will you do with this 
report? 

Ada Works: Mr. President, I don’t like this plan. 

87 


1 think that waste paper barrels should be furnished. 
But instead of reporting to the principal those who 
fail to put their lunch wrappers in these barrels, I 
think we should report them to their clubs. I do not 
believe that many pupils of this school will throw 
waste paper on the ground if barrels are put in con¬ 
venient places. If a few pupils are found guilty of 
doing this, their clubs should try them and punish 
them. I therefore move that Mr. Williams, our prin¬ 
cipal, be requested to get the barrels; but that he 
also be asked to leave to the pupils the matter of 
seeing that waste paper is put in them. 

The President: Is this motion seconded? 

Beatrice Wade: Mr. President, I second this 
motion. 

The President: All in favor of this motion say 
“Aye.” All who are opposed say “No.” The “Ayes” 
have it; and the motion is carried. * 

The President: Are there reports from any other 
standing committees? If not, we will now hear from 
the Special Committee on the Classroom Library. 

William Cobb: Mr. President, we recommend 
that the following books be bought for our class 


library: 

Brooks’ Stories of South America .... $ .80 
Williamson’s Life of Lee .60 

Total.$1.40 


The President: You have heard the recommenda¬ 
tion of William Cobb. What will you do with it? 

Janet Boyd : Mr. President, I move that the books 
be bought. 


88 




Oscar Simms: I second the motion. 

The President: All who favor this motion say 
“Aye”; all opposed, “No.” The motion is carried. 

1 he President: We will now have the special 
program. Irma Brownlow, the chairman of the Pro¬ 
gram Committee, will please come forward and take 
charge of the meeting. 

Irma Brownlow: We will have a debate on the 
following subject: Resolved, That every boy and 
girl should graduate from high school. 

The debaters on the affirmative are: 

Frank Butzner 
Mildred Smith 

Those representing the negative are: 

James Simpson 
Rebecca Faircloth 

The first speaker was Frank Butzner. Frank was 
followed by James Simpson, after which the other 
two speakers presented their arguments. The rebuttal 
then came: that is, an opportunity was given each 
debater to answer arguments advanced by his op¬ 
ponents. After the debate had closed, the club mem¬ 
bers decided by a vote of twenty-eight to six that 
the affirmative side had won. 

Irma Brownlow: This completes the program. 
I will now turn the meeting back to the president. 

The President: Is there any other matter to 
come before the club? If not, I await a motion to 
adjourn. 


89 


Ada White: I move that we adjourn. 

Zihla Kaplan: I second the motion. 

The President: All who favor adjournment will 
say “Aye”; all opposed, “No.” The motion is carried, 
and the club stands adjourned. 


Club Activities 

1. Reorganize your club. 

2. Appoint standing committees: committees for improvement, for 
entertainment, and to visit the sick. 

3. Write new songs, new cheers, and a class slogan. 



Courtesy of Miss Emilie Yunker 

Hanging May Basket at Children’s Hospital 


90 








CHAPTER XV 
OCCUPATIONS 

Problems: (1) To make a study of occupations; and 
(2) to discuss your future vocation. 

What do you intend to make of yourself? What 
is the calling in life you wish to follow? Are you going 
to be a farmer, or a business man, or a lawyer, or a 
doctor, or a preacher, or a teacher, or an accountant, 
or a mechanic, or a painter, or a plasterer, or a car¬ 
penter, or a mason, or what? 

Making Up Your Mind.—Perhaps you have not 
made up your mind yet as to your life work. Perhaps 
you have not given the matter much thought. Pos¬ 
sibly you are so absorbed in your school and your 
play that you have not taken time to think what you 
will do when your school life is ended and you enter 
the great world. The sooner you make up your mind 
as to the vocation you are to follow the better for you, 
because you can then shape your education and training 
for a definite end. The world is full of people w 7 ho drift 
about from one occupation to another without ever 
knowing what they really wish to do. Such people 
seldom succeed. They hold minor positions all their 
lives and have little chance to reveal their talents. 
They never function properly, we say. 

Choosing Early.—On the other hand, a few long¬ 
headed people make up their minds early in life as to 
what calling they will pursue. This gives them the 
91 


advantage of being on the lookout for everything that 
may help them to realize their aim. The girl who 
decides at the age of thirteen to be a teacher has an 
advantage over the girl who simply drifts into teaching 
at the end of her schooling: the former will make a 
better teacher than the latter. The boy who decides 
to be a doctor at an early age will pay special attention 
to science in his school work and will go to college 
better prepared to study for his profession than the 
boy who enters medicine merely because it seems to 
be a profitable occupation. The same thing is true of 
the boy who expects to be a lawyer, or preacher, or 
anything else. Nature decides for many of us. You 
may see the future business man trading with the 
other boys on the playground and getting the best of 
his bargains. The future lawyer is usually a keener 
debater than the other boys; the future newspaper 
reporter writes for the school paper; the future me¬ 
chanic knows all about automobiles; the future sales¬ 
man is noted for his persuasive talk. 

Few Callings Once. —In early times there were 
few callings, because people had not specialized then 
as they have today. A man would be a farmer—and 
nine out of ten men in the United States were farmers— 
or he might become a clerk in a store or a mechanic. 
Only a few men became lawyers, doctors, and preachers, 
partly because there was not a great demand for pro¬ 
fessional Inen in those days and partly because edu¬ 
cation was very expensive and difficult to get. Nobody 
could make a living in literary vocations, and teachers 
had to be instructors in private schools or open schools 
of their own. 


92 


Modem Vocations. —In the last hundred years most 
modern vocations have come into existence. Railroads 
give employment to hundreds of thousands of people. 
Early in the nineteenth century the only public means 
of transportation by land was the stage coach, and 
there were few stage coaches. Automobiles have opened 
a number of occupations that did not exist twenty-five 
years ago, when private transportation was by horse- 
drawn vehicles. A few generations since there were 
no insurance agents, stenographers, typewriters, real 
estate dealers, electricians, house painters, photogra¬ 
phers, trained nurses, brokers; and hundreds of other 
callings now employing thousands of people were 
unthought of. This diversity of occupations is at once 
a blessing and a drawback: it gives us a far wider 
range of choice than our ancestors had, but at the same 
time it puts us in danger of making a mistake in our 
choice. With so many roads to success open, we are 
likely to enter one for w T hich we are not suited. The 
occupation that one likes is usually best, for a man 
or woman does far better work when the work is 
congenial than when it is not. Indeed, nothing is 
more difficult than to succeed in a distasteful calling. 

Farming. —Although the range of vocations is so 
much wider today than even one generation ago, it 
nevertheless remains a fact that farming is still in many 
ways the best calling of all. The farmer profits by the 
inventions which brought so many new occupations 
into existence. Labor-saving machinery makes it 
cheaper for him to produce crops than formerly; and 
automobiles, telephones, and radiophones do away 
with the old-time loneliness of country life. The 
93 


farmer who owns his own farm—if it is fairly good 
land—is the most independent of all men. He is not 
worried constantly, as nearly all city dwellers are, by 
the increasing cost of living. He does not pay rent 
and he makes most of his own food. In bad seasons he 
will not save much money, but he always earns a 
living. He has far more leisure than any other class 
of workers, for he has holiday much of the winter 



A Hayfield 


His children help him on the farm instead of being a 
great expense, as children are in the city. In many 
ways the farmer in the long run of years has an ad¬ 
vantage over other men. 

Other Outdoor Vocations.—Other outdoor occupa¬ 
tions are: civil engineering, structural iron work, 
house painting, insurance soliciting, lumbering, forestry, 
street cleaning, road making, automobile driving. Out- 
94 




door work is usually healthier than indoor employment, 
but the number of outdoor occupations is far smaller 
than of indoor vocations. With the exception of 
farmers, the body of the people of the United States 
do their work in houses. 

Indoor Occupations.—The great world of business 
and manufacture is mainly an indoor realm. Merchants 
and business men of many sorts, clerks, stenographers, 
typewriters, secretaries, lawyers, doctors, dentists, 
factory and mill workers, do their work indoors. 
Indoor work is not injurious to the health, provided 
the worker gets outdoor exercise after hours and on 
Sundays. In many ways it is better than outdoor 
work, for there is no exposure to bad weather and less 
hard manual labor. 

Skilled and Unskilled Occupations.—Nearly all 
people with any education are skilled workers. In 
fact, this is the main advantage of education, for 
skilled workers are paid more and have easier working 
conditions than unskilled laborers. The most highly 
skilled occupations are the professions, which require 
years of training. It is a mistake to think, however, 
that they pay better than other occupations. The 
callings that pay the best for the amount of training 
and education involved are skilled trades. In propor¬ 
tion to their education, locomotive engineers are 
among the highest paid workers in the world. Print¬ 
ers, carpenters, masons, paper hangers, plasterers, 
structural steel workers, steel mill workers, and, in 
fact, nearly all members of the skilled trades receive 
good wages. Some of these workers make more money 
than the average doctor, lawyer, or business man. 

95 


Few clerks in business offices get as much pay as the 
workers in skilled trades and they are not as indepen¬ 
dent. Boys and girls have an excellent chance in 
junior high school to take vocational classes. These 
classes are in wood and metal work, printing, electricity, 
millinery, dressmaking, and other subjects. By giving 



Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 


Manual Training in School 


attention to them one may find that he has a talent 
for some skilled trade—a talent the cultivation of 
which will lead to success in life. 

Unskilled Labor.—Contrasted with the skilled 
trades is what is known as unskilled labor. This latter 
range of vocations includes ditch digging, street work 
of most kinds, house wrecking, shifting materials, 
96 



the rough labor of railway construction, mining, and a 
number of other occupations. Unskilled labor is poor¬ 
ly paid in comparison with skilled work, though much 
better paid now than formerly. Few people that pass 
through high school become unskilled laborers. The 
work is too severe, the pay too small, the chance of 
advancement too poor to make this kind of occupa¬ 
tion attractive. 

Practical Education.—Make up your mind that you 
will have a good practical education—one that will defi¬ 
nitely fit you for some bread-winning occupation. Much 
of education is of little practical benefit, as, for instance, 
knowledge of the Greek language. Formerly most edu¬ 
cation was of this sort, and students left high school or 
college poorly fitted for the battle of life. Modern edu¬ 
cation, however, is all the time becoming more practical 
and therefore more beneficial. All that you learn at 
school and high school will prove of value to you in the 
struggle of making a living. And if you go to college 
resolved to secure a useful education, you may select 
studies that will do much to insure your success in life. 


Club Activities 

1. Give the laws concerning child labor in your state. 

2. Debate this question: Resolved, That the work of a farmer is more 
useful than that of a merchant. 

3. Write a short paper showing that an early choice of an occupation 
is necessary to success in life. 

4. Plan and give a pantomime in which the members of the club 
represent the various occupations. 


97 


CHAPTER XVI 
KEEPING THINGS CLEAN 

Problems: (1) To study the relation of cleanliness to 
health; and (2) to organize a campaign against mosquitoes, 
flies, and other pests. 

Cleanliness and Health.—One of the most im¬ 
portant dates in the history of the United States is 
1850. In that year the modern bathtub was invented. 
Few inventions have done more for the happiness 
and welfare of humanity. Because of this invention 
the people of the United States adopted the habit 
of cleanliness, and the example of the United States is 
converting the whole world. People have found that 
they are far healthier, and therefore far happier, when 
they are clean. 

Clean Houses.—In former times many people 
cared little for the cleanliness of their houses. This 
was natural, because they cared little for the cleanli¬ 
ness of their bodies. Clean houses came with clean 
bodies. It is considered a disgrace now for a family 
to live in a dusty, dirty house. Trash that once was 
allowed to lie on the floor is removed, and floors are 
swept and furniture is dusted. Dust is dangerous, as 
people have come to learn. This has led to the use 
of vacuum cleaners, which take up dirt and dust 
without letting particles fly into the air. Clean floors, 
dustless furniture, and clean beds insure us against 
many sicknesses which used to play havoc with hu- 
98 


manity. Dirt and disease go together. If you wish 
to be healthy, keep yourself clean and live in clean 
surroundings. 

Clean Streets.—People who have neat houses wish 
to live in a clean city. Once upon a time the streets 
of cities were filled with rubbish of all kinds. They 
were never cleaned by the city government and were 
sometimes inches deep in mud. On busy streets, 
where there was constant passing, street sweepers 
made paths across the mud, for which they received 
coppers in return. All this is changed. Garbage, 
rubbish, and ashes are carted away and destroyed. 
Trash receptacles are kept in certain places, so that 
people will not throw things in the street. In some 
cities rotary street sweepers are used. In others, 
the streets are flushed with water at night, the best 
method of all. Cities that wash the streets regularly 
have a low disease rate. 

Clean Yards and Beautiful.—Strangely enough, 
many people are still somewhat careless about their 
yards, especially back yards. In cities back yards 
are often littered with waste paper, tin cans, and 
garbage. In the country you sometimes find pigsties 
near dwelling houses and barnyards covered with 
rotten straw and other refuse. Such conditions pro¬ 
mote disease. It is not difficult to remedy them. 
A few hours’ work each week will make your back 
yard a healthful and beautiful spot instead of an 
eyesore. Instead of weeds you may have beautiful 
flowers blooming. The same thing applies to your 
school lawn. Is it ornamented with grass, shrubbery, 
shade trees and flowers, or is it just a bare, unsightly 
99 


lot covered with paper and ashes? The Junior Citizens 
Club should do something each year to make the 
school grounds the most attractive spot in the whole 
community. 

Swatting the Fly.—One of the ways in which you 
can help to make things clean is by killing flies and 
by destroying their breeding-places. Kill every fly 



A Neglected Back Yard 


you see. The common house fly is more dangerous 
to the human race than all the lions, tigers, and other 
beasts of prey put together: it is a spreader of disease. 
Fly-killing is a matter of even more importance in the 
country than in cities, because flies are more numerous 
in the country than in cities. In the country, where 
the people have no assistance in cleaning up, flies still 
breed numerously in stables and barnyards. The 
100 










best way to prevent flies is to keep the premises so 
clean that they will have no breeding-places. And 
when one of the pests does appear, “Swat the fly!” 
should be the cry raised immediately. 

Pure Water.—Clean water is our prime necessity. 
In former times people paid little attention to the 
cleanliness of water, with the result that thousands 


Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 

Covering Food from Flies 

died annually from typhoid fever and other diseases. 
They did not know then what caused these ills. When 
it Was learned that water is the chief medium in which 
typhoid is conveyed, cities began to study the sources 
of their water supply. If the water supply comes from 
lakes or streams, care is usually taken to see that 
garbage and filth are removed from the neighborhood. 
Sometimes water is brought from great distances in 
101 



order to insure purity: New York City is supplied 
with water brought from the Catskill Mountains, 
a hundred miles away. In some cities chemicals are 
used to make the water pure, but purified water 
is not so good as water originally pure. Country 
people now take pains to have their wells and springs 



Water Supply for a City 


clean. They know that if they do not they are likely 
to be sick. 

The Pledge.—In some cities clubs have been 
organized to further the great work of making cities 
cleaner and healthier. The following is the pledge taken 
by the members of a “Keep Your City Clean Club” 
organized in a large city school: 

102 




Motto 

I will do all in my power to make a cleaner and more 
beautiful city. 

Pledge 

I will not throw paper, fruit skins, or other trash in the 
streets, alleys, or school yard. 

I will not write on fences, buildings, posts, or sidewalks. 

I will keep my front and back yards free from waste 
paper, weeds, and all rubbish. 

I will help to keep all garbage at my house covered up. 

I will make every day a Clean-Up Day at my home. 

I will help to make my school the prettiest in the city. 

Club Activities 

1. Tell how some diseases can be prevented. Which is better, to pre¬ 
vent or to cure disease? 

2. Appoint a member of your class to write to your state health depart¬ 
ment for a pamphlet on pure drinking water for schools and homes. 

3. Get your class to make a survey of the school premises in order to 
learn in what respects health conditions might be improved. 

4 . Explain how parks and playgrounds promote health. 

5. Answer these questions: 

What diseases does your board of health quarantine? 

What disposition is made of sewage in your community? 

How is garbage disposed of? 

What is being done about the water supply? The milk supply? 

What officer in your community is responsible for health? 

Why are city dump piles a menace to health? 

What is the bubonic plague and how is it spread? 

What is the hookworm disease and how is it spread? 

Which of the following water supplies is most dangerous: a well; 
a spring; a stream? Why? 

6. Organize a campaign against mosquitoes, flies, and other pests. 
(See page 304 for suggestions.) 

7. Organize a neighborhood “clean-up” campaign. Consult your local 
or state board of health for plans and methods. 


103 


CHAPTER XVII 
SAVERS AND WASTERS 

Problems: (1) To study how others have succeeded by 
thrift; and (2) to learn how to save and to spend wisely. 

Meaning of Thrift.—Many of us have an idea 
that thrift simply means self-denial—going without 
the things we want. This is a mistake. Thrift does 
mean going without certain things. It means going 
without unnecessary and often not very desirable 
things in order to gain other things more necessary 
and.highly to be sought. It means giving up the pleasure 
of the moment in order to win lasting happiness. 
This is the point that should be understood, because 
it makes saving easy—thrift is far more than self- 
denial: it is profit, gain, prosperity. 

Andrew Carnegie.—When Andrew Carnegie was 
a boy he was very poor. He came of a family of work¬ 
ers; his father was a weaver of linen who was ruined 
by the introduction of machinery in linen making. So 
Andrew had to go to work at an early age. While 
he was still a young boy, the family moved from 
Scotland to America and settled in Pittsburgh. Andrew 
went to work in a factory there at a very small wage. 
Leaving the factory, he rose to be an operator in a 
telegraph office. All the time he was saving—a little 
money, it is true, because the family largely depended 
on him, but still a little. At last the chance came 
to secure a good investment. The family mortgaged 
104 


its humble house in order to eke out Andrew’s savings, 
and thus he was able to make his first investment. 
This was the beginning of such success as few men 
have ever gained. From a boy working in a factory, 
Andrew Carnegie rose to be one of the greatest million¬ 
aires on earth. Thrift was the basis of his success. It 
was better for him to have denied himself the pleasures 
of the moment, in order to win immense wealth and 
high position in later life, than to have spent his money 
as he made it and so lose his chance for the future. 
That is the essence of thrift: it is the building of a 
future. Almost all people who are thrifty in youth 
do well in later life, because money, as the saying is, 
breeds money. The thrifty boy or girl is not only 
making money by his or her own efforts but by the 
use of the money saved. He or she has two sources 
of income—work and interest , which .is the payment 
made for the use of money. It is easy to see that the 
thrifty person soon outdistances the people who have 
to depend altogether on work. 

Return on Money. —This return on money is the 
reason for thrift. All grown people, if they are sensible, 
practice thrift to some extent, but children frequently 
are not expected to do so. Children often spend 
every cent given them or that they earn on candy, 
moving pictures, or in other ways that bring in no 
return. They expect to save, but at some time in the 
future, not realizing that thrift cannot begin too soon, 
that no one is too young to observe it. If you regularly 
put a little money in a savings bank you will be sur¬ 
prised to see how much it will amount to in a few years. 
Often one has a chance to lend money at six per cent 
105 


interest—that is, to receive a return of six dollars for 
the use of a hundred dollars for a year. Sometimes 
one is able to get eight dollars for the use of a hundred 
dollars for a year. In an old church a twenty-dollar 
gold piece, which bore the date 1808, was recently 
found. If that gold piece had been loaned from 1808 
to 1922, at six per cent interest, compounded semi¬ 
annually, it would have increased to $16,474.64. 
You see from this how money grows. 

A Budget.—But it is not easy to save before saving 
has become a habit. The dimes and nickels get away 
from us without our knowing how they go; the stores 
are full of things we want. How then shall we set about 
saving? The best way to save is to begin by keeping 
an expense account. Put down in a little tablet every 
cent you spend each day for a month; then look at 
the account. You will be surprised to see how much 
money you spend on things you do not need and which 
do not give you great satisfaction. Perhaps you 
bought ten cents’ worth of candy three times a week: 
once a week would do as well. Perhaps you have been 
to the moving pictures six evenings in the month: 
four would be enough. After you have kept an expense 
account for some time, you will begin to see how you 
might save here and there and yet have just as much 
pleasure. Make what is called a budget. Put down 
your necessary expenses and then make a certain 
addition for pleasure and extras. If you keep to the 
budget, you may be sure you are thrifty. If you spend 
much more than it calls for, you may know that there 
is a leak, that money is going unnecessarily. 

Need of Thrift Universal.—Everybody needs to 
106 


exercise thrift. Even rich men will not get along if 
they spend money recklessly. If this is true of the 
rich, how much more so is it of the poor! Thrift indeed 
usually marks the difference between the employee, 
the man who takes orders, and the employer. The 
man who saves nothing is always under some one 
else, always insecure, always afraid that he will lose 
his place and not be able to get another. The thrifty 
person—the person who has money in bank or who 
owns property—does not have this worry, because he 
knows that even if he should be out of work for a time 
he will have something to fall back on. If he con¬ 
tinues to be thrifty, he will become an employer of 
others and will give orders instead of receiving them. 

Needlessness of Waste.—The great thing about 
thrift is that after one begins to be thrifty, thrift 
comes easy. It is largely a matter of thought. We 
do not wish to spend money on unnecessary things, 
yet we often waste. We obtain pleasure from spend¬ 
ing money for amusements, but when we waste we get 
nothing at all in return. There is no pleasure in waste. 
In most families much good food is wasted—food 
which could be served the second day in some appetiz¬ 
ing form but which, instead, is thrown in the garbage 
can. Clothes are often wasted in the same way: why 
should we not wear old clothes at certain times and 
save our good ones? Frequently we throw away 
shoes that would last for months by patching. Furni¬ 
ture is sometimes allowed to go to pieces for lack of 
a little repairing. Children often destroy school books 
which could be sold or passed on to another child in 
the family. Likewise, they waste paper by writing 
107 


only on a part of a sheet and then throwing it away. 
There are a thousand ways in which we waste: nearly 
all of us are guilty of it in some form and to some 
extent. We should fight against it: waste is not only 
wrong; it is stupid. If we come to understand how 
much saving means, we are far less likely to waste. 

When People Save.—If a farmer does not spend 
all of his earnings for clothing, amusements, the doctor 
and dentist, and in other ways, he has a sum left over. 
With this he may buy a few more acres of land. The 
new acres will mean that next year he will raise a 
larger crop and get more money; and, if he is a very 
thrifty man, he may go on in this way year after year 
until he turns a small farm into a great estate. If a 
business man does not spend all of his earnings for 
food, clothing, doctor’s bills, and in other ways, he 
has a sum left over. This will enable him to buy more 
goods next year, and the larger stock of goods will 
mean an increased profit. He can do this year after 
year; his wealth will increase, and he may eventually 
become rich, perhaps a millionaire. The same thing, 
in some degree, is true of the professional man, the 
mechanic, the factory worker, and nearly everybody else. 

How You May Save.—You have a chance to earn 
money by thrift, just as the farmer and business man 
and doctor have. You can begin by putting a little 
money in a savings bank or in Postal Savings stamps. 
If you put one dollar in a savings bank, you will receive 
three cents at the end of the year for the use of your 
money. This may seem a small amount, but if you 
put ten dollars in the savings bank you will get thirty 
cents in interest, and one hundred dollars will bring 

108 


you in a return of three dollars. There are other ways 
of investment. Nobody need be without means of 
gaining interest on money. 

The Way to Wealth.—Thrift is the way to wealth. 
There is really no other way. Nearly everyone who 
has made a success of life has done so by thrift. The 
man who spends all he makes and never saves any¬ 
thing is at the mercy of every misfortune. He must 
borrow money when he is sick or in trouble, and he 
has no means to invest when opportunities come. 
Such men almost never become rich. The place to 
be is in the ranks of the thrifty, the savers , and not 
in the ranks of the unthrifty, the wasters. Those who 
take this stand and stick to it will be practically 
certain to meet with some measure of success at least. 


Club Activities 

1. Make a list of different ways in which people waste time; money; 
material. 

2. Write a short composition on “Why I Should Have a Bank Account.” 

3. Find out all you can about the manner in which the banks in your 
community are conducted. 

4. Let the club originate and give a “Thrift” play. The proceeds may 
be used to add books to the library. 


109 



/ 


















































CHAPTER XVIII 
BEAUTY 

Problems : (1) To learn the importance of beauty in one’s 
surroundings; and (2) to take steps to beautify your own 
community. 

Beauty of Washington. —If you go to Washington, 
you will find a city different from any you have seen 
before. You will see wide, asphalt-paved streets, 
bordered by beautiful trees; parks, whose refreshing 
loveliness will tempt you to linger in them; public 
buildings, massive and yet graceful and pleasing. 
Nowhere will you see smoke and dirt and confusion. 
The reason for this is that Washington is a city where 
beauty has been greatly considered and where efforts 
for improvement have been put forth for many years. 
There is probably no more beautiful city in the whole 
world than the capital of our country. 

Beauty in Other Cities. —What has been done so 
well in Washington is being done to some extent in all 
the cities of the country. For many years Americans 
were too intent on growth to care much for appearances. 
The fine old houses that had been built in the early 
period of our history were neglected; buildings were 
put up for purposes of usefulness alone and with no 
regard to grace and beauty; telegraph, telephone, and 
trolley poles raised their unsightly heads everywhere; 
front yards were neglected; hideous advertisements 
were scattered through the streets, even the best 
111 


residential streets; there were few parks; there were 
few streets with trees. But a number of years ago 
some of the public-spirited people of the country began 
a movement to improve the appearance of our cities, 
and this has been under way ever since. Much has 
been accomplished. In many large cities telegraph 
and telephone poles have been taken down; streets 
are properly paved; trees are planted throughout 
residential sections; frequently ugly houses have been 
replaced by pleasing ones. Everywhere our cities have 
been cleaned up; the streets are no longer left littered 
with paper and rubbish; wdndow boxes bloom in 
houses. The former hardness and bareness of our 
cities is fast being replaced by soft beauty—by grass 
and trees and flowers. 

Beautifying the Yard.—In no respect has the move¬ 
ment for beauty accomplished more than in the beauti¬ 
fying of yards. The time was when we paid little atten¬ 
tion to front yards, especially in the smaller cities. 
Now nearly everybody who has a front yard has a 
lawn. In many places the competition between house 
owners in the matter of fine lawns is keen. When men 
come home from work they like to trim the grass with 
the lawn mower, and each season they make efforts 
to have better grass. Often flowers add a dash of 
color to the cool and grateful green of the grass. Not 
so much has been done in the case of the back yard. 
Sometimes fine houses with well-kept lawns have 
unsightly back yards: cans, waste paper, and rubbish 
still litter back yards, even in good streets. This 
should not be the case. We should have clean yards. 
But we may have back yards sufficiently clean for 
112 


purposes of health and yet bare and dreary. A little 
patch of grass, a border of flowers, a row of trees, or a 
creeping vine will add immensely to the attractiveness 
of the surroundings. People are insensibly affected by 
their surroundings; a man with a beautiful back yard 
will be happier than one who looks out on dismal 
bricks and mortar unrelieved by vegetation. 

Trees.—Perhaps the most important factors in 
community beauty are trees. Nowadays we are so 
alive to the value of trees that we not only plant large 
numbers of young ones, but we pay much attention 
to old ones. There are “tree doctors” whose work 
is to save trees beginning to decay. An old tree is 
treated by surgery and medicine, somewhat as a sick 
man is. In some cities people are fined for cutting 
down trees, even on their own places, unless the trees 
are replaced by others. In nearly all the cities of the 
country there are long tree-lined streets which are the 
pride of the community. Trees are not only beautiful; 
they are an advantage in many ways. They screen 
houses from the glare of the summer sun, and they 
protect passers-by from the heat. They soothe the 
eyes and help tired nerves. They benefit body and 
mind. 

Better Housing.—Another movement which con¬ 
cerns both health and beauty is that of affording better 
houses for working people. Formerly, in many cities, 
working people lived in tenements—large, bare, bar¬ 
racklike places without grace or ornament—or in 
little tumble-down houses on the outskirts. These 
brought a low rent and the owners spent little or 
nothing in repairs. Fortunately this condition of 
113 



affairs is passing away. Only houses of decent appear¬ 
ance may now be built in most cities, and owners are 
required to clean up and keep buildings in repair. 
We demand good living conditions for citizens. 

Advertisements.—Twenty years ago visitors from 
foreign countries spoke most unfavorably of the adver¬ 
tisements which then flooded every city. No section 
of an American city was free from enormous signs 


Beautifying the School Grounds, Chester (Va.) High School 

advertising every commodity under the sun in a glar¬ 
ing manner. Billboards stood on nearly every vacant 
lot, even on the finest streets. Roads and railroads 
were lined with advertisements of every sort. Turn 
where one would, there was no escaping signs. Within 
the’ last few years this condition has been improved. 
In some cities large signs can be put up only in certain 
sections; in other sections advertisements are restricted. 
Besides, the advertisements themselves have changed. 

114 



They have become much more artistic and pleasing, 
and the traveler’s sense of beauty is no longer offended 
on every side as formerly. 

What You Can Do.—All of us can help to create 
civic beauty. You have an opportunity to do much 
yourself. In the first place, you can help to make 
your own home beautiful. You can see that the lawn 
is cut and the back yard free of cans and rubbish. 
You can plant trees and paint the fences and gates 
around your home. More than this, you can aid in 
making your school beautiful. Most school buildings 
are built for beauty as well as use: in every city there 
are handsome and graceful schools. But sometimes 
the surroundings of these schools are not what they 
should be. It is there that you can help. You can take 
part in the movement for making the outside of the 
school beautiful and for keeping the inside clean and 
attractive. This is an important matter. 

Club Activities 

1. Find out what town or city ordinances aid in beautifying your com¬ 
munity. Name others which might be made. 

2. Keep a class record of various efforts made to beautify your 
community. 

3. See what your club can do to prevent needless destruction of trees 
or other natural beauty in your locality. 

4. Appoint committees to take steps to beautify your schoolroom and 
school yard. 


115 


CHAPTER XIX 
SAFETY 

Problems: (1) To make a study of “ safety-first ” regu¬ 
lations; and (2) to suggest means of carrying them out. 

Drive to the Right.—Certain things are agreed on 
for the good of all. Suppose there were no road laws 
and no traffic regulations for the streets: everyone 
who rode in an automobile or crossed a street on 
foot would be in imminent danger of death, for one 
could never tell in which direction cars would be com¬ 
ing. Collisions would be endless. Every curve in 
every road would have its accident, because auto¬ 
mobiles going in opposite directions and traveling on 
the same side of the road would crash into each other. 
As it is, the road law is to keejp to the right , and this 
simple regulation makes travel possible. Drivers know 
just what to do. In cities regulations are much more 
elaborate: automobiles must go at a certain speed; 
those going in certain directions have the right of way 
and certain streets are used for one-way traffic. Un¬ 
fortunately, however, regulations are sometimes broken, 
and the breaking of them leads to the death and maim¬ 
ing of many persons. If everybody carefully observed 
traffic regulations, there would be few mishaps. Care¬ 
lessness is the cause of most accidents. 

Fourth of July Celebrations.—We all like to cele¬ 
brate the Fourth of July, the birthday of the nation. 
We have found that the “sane Fourth” is the best 
116 


kind of celebration. Formerly the Fourth of July was 
observed by shooting off firecrackers and pistols. Some 
of these firecrackers were of immense size and pro¬ 
duced almost as loud a report as a cannon. Every 
Fourth of July a large number of persons, mostly boys, 
were injured or killed by explosives and many houses 
were destroyed by fire. The newspapers contained 
long lists of terrible accidents. In recent years the 
shooting of pistols and firecrackers has been forbidden 
in large cities. The result has been that the Fourth 
of July accidents have nearly ceased while everybody 
enjoys Independence Day as much as ever. 

Fire Drills.—Fire drills are a great protection to 
schools, as they enable children to leave the building 
rapidly. When a fire breaks out in a school where the 
rule for going out quickly has been practiced, the chil¬ 
dren almost always leave in safety. 

Firemen’s Methods. —All city fire departments 
have a thorough organization for handling fires. Usu¬ 
ally a space for some distance about the burning area 
is roped off and none but firemen are permitted to 
come within the ropes. This is done for two reasons: 
citizens, if allowed to come near the burning buildings, 
would get in the firemen’s way; and they would also 
be in great danger of being killed by falling walls. In 
order, therefore, to do their work properly and protect 
the public, firemen have strict regulations. Each fire¬ 
man knows just what is expected of him and when the 
time comes he is able to do his work quickly and 
effectively. 

Police Regulations. —The police enforce many regu¬ 
lations for the safety of citizens. In some cities people 
117 



are not permitted to cross the streets except at corners, 
in order to lessen the danger of accidents from auto¬ 
mobiles and street cars. Another law is that fire 
escapes must not be clogged up. The reason for this 
is that they may be needed at any moment, and persons 
have lost their lives on account of the blocking of 


After the Accident 

fire escapes with luggage. People are forbidden to 
spit on the sidewalk, since in this way disease germs are 
spread, bringing suffering and death to many. 

Railroad Safety.—The regulations on railroads are 
very strict, because the lives of people depend on regu¬ 
larity. Why do you suppose that trains leave at cer¬ 
tain hours? Partly that people may know when to 
118 





go to the station, and partly because a regular schedule 
has much to do with insuring the safety of trains. The 
railroad officials and workmen know when each train 
is expected at each station, and this means that other 
trains are not likely to be in the way. Train workmen 
are not allowed to drink alcohol. This regulation was 
adopted by the railroads years ago, because it was 
found that drunken engineers were sometimes the cause 
of terrible accidents. Pedestrians are warned not to 
walk on railroad tracks and cross railroad bridges; 
many persons have been killed by getting on the tracks. 
Likewise, passengers are warned by notices in coaches 
not to stand on the platform while the train is in motion, 
as fatal accidents have occurred in this way. Railroad 
regulations forbid a train to enter a “ block, ” or a cer¬ 
tain small section of a road, where a train is standing, 
until the train already in the block has gone on. 
This is done to prevent collisions. 

Health Laws. —No person is allowed to land from a 
ship coming into a port of the United States until the 
passengers have been examined and the health officials 
are satisfied that no cases of dangerous epidemic dis¬ 
eases are on board. Sometimes a ship is kept in quar¬ 
antine for ten days before the officials are certain that 
there is no peril. When smallpox, diphtheria, scarlet 
fever, and some other diseases break out in a house, 
the occupants of that house are kept quarantined until 
the health authorities are satisfied that the danger of 
the spread of the disease is past. In every city there 
are authorities engaged in enforcing laws to protect the 
health and lives of citizens. 

Theater Regulations.—In all cities there are laws 
119 


for the protection of people who visit theaters and 
moving pictures. Theaters are required to have asbes¬ 
tos curtains, so that in case a fire breaks out on the 
stage it can be shut off at once from the audience by 
the lowering of the curtain. People are not allowed to 
stand in the aisles of theaters; in many theaters they 
are not allowed to stand at all. This rule was estab¬ 
lished to prevent jams in case of panics caused by fires 
or other accidents. In some states the law requires 
moving-picture operators to be licensed, in order to 
prevent the occurrence of fires from ignorance and 
inexperience. 

Handling of Crowds.—At parades and on all occa¬ 
sions where great crowds gather policemen are at hand 
to protect the public. Mounted policemen usually ride 
in front of parades to see that no persons are in the way. 
People attempting to cross a street while a parade is 
passing are kept back by the police. This is done to 
prevent accidents. If spectators were allowed to get in 
the way, especially in circus and automobile parades, 
they would be in great danger of being killed. Like¬ 
wise, at open-air political gatherings policemen are 
stationed to preserve order and prevent overcrowding. 
At ball parks, policemen see that the people do not 
press into the entrances too rapidly. A dense crowd is 
a dangerous place in which to be, and people have been 
frequently killed or injured by being caught in jams. 

Safety on Street Cars.—In many cities the street 
cars bear notices warning persons not to get off cars 
backward and not to step away from cars without 
watching for oncoming automobiles. These notices also 
urge passengers not to get on and off cars while in mo- 
120 



■ 


JS 


mgr sJBfm , i 

Ml m 



Photograph by Underwood and Underwood 

(121) A Circus Parade 




























tion and not to step across another track on alighting 
from a car. Many accidents have been caused by dis¬ 
regarding these precautions. 

Protection of Employees.—In factories and mills 
great pains are taken to protect employees. In most 
factories there are notices warning employees to observe 
measures for their protection. In factories where flying 
particles cause injury to the eyes or lungs, employees 
are urged to wear glasses and, in some cases, gas 
masks, in order to protect themselves. In nearly all 
manufacturing plants where dangerous work is done the 
regulations are very strict. Observance of them usually 
insures the safety of workmen, and violations are fre¬ 
quently followed by disaster. 

Safety-First Movement. —The whole country has 
awakened recently to the importance of the “safety- 
first” movement. This movement was begun some 
years ago by a group of public-minded citizens who 
were saddened by the great number of avoidable acci¬ 
dents that occur in the United States every year. By 
posting warnings in dangerous places and by other 
means they have aroused the people to make efforts 
to reduce the perils of our daily life. It is a step in the 
right direction. People in civilized countries should 
not constantly go about in danger of their lives. 

Ten Safety-First Rules 

1. Never cross a street or railroad track without being 
sure the way is clear. Observe the rules of the traffic depart¬ 
ment when crossing streets. 

2. Be careful while working with tools and machines. 

3. Do not play with automobiles. Do not play in the 
streets. 


122 


4. Do not play with firearms or hold in the hand lighted 
firecrackers. 

5. Keep away from open fireplaces. 

6. Do not play dangerous games, such as “rock bat¬ 
tling.” Do not dare others to skate on thin ice, to climb 
high walls, or to jump from low buildings. 

7. Do not venture into deep water either in swimming 
or boating unless you are a good swimmer. 

8. Do not build fires with kerosene. 

9. Avoid all broken wires that may be charged with 
electricity. 

10. Do not handle gasoline, dynamite, or other ex¬ 
plosives. 

Club Activities 

1. Secure for the bulletin board newspaper clippings describing accidents 
to children and adults. 

2. Mention some state laws that help to prevent accidents on the 
public highways and on railroad tracks. 

3. Appoint a committee to secure a copy of the traffic laws of your city. 
Read and discuss the most important of these rules. 

4. Describe in an oral composition how you met with an accident 
through carelessness. 

5. Find out what protection against fire your community provides. 

6. Discuss and adopt a set of safety-first rules which will prevent 
accidents at school and in going to and returning from school. 

7. Appoint a committee to make a poster containing these rules for 
display in your room or in the school corridor. 


CHAPTER XX 
FIRE PREVENTION 

Problems: (1) To study fire prevention; and (2) to 
learn how you may help in this work. 

The Cost of Fires.—Sometimes as you drive along 
a country highway you see standing in a deserted field 
or grove a lone chimney. Around it is piled rubbish 
fringed with rank weeds and shrubs. This dreary spot 
marks the place where there was once a happy home; 
but some one grew careless, the house caught on fire, 
and in a few hours nothing but a naked chimney and 
blackened ruins remained. There are thousands of 
such chimneys in America, for we have not yet learned 
the important lesson of fire prevention. 

A Fire a Minute.—Fifteen thousand lives are lost 
each year in the United States by fire, while the prop¬ 
erty destruction reaches the enormous sum of $400, 
000,000. You can get an idea of what this means by 
the following illustration: there are 1440 minutes in a 
day, and there are about 1500 fires every day in the 
United States. Watch a clock for a few minutes. 
Every time the long hand passes a minute mark say to 
yourself, “Another fire has broken out.” Besides fac¬ 
tories and hotels, eight hundred dwelling houses are 
destroyed by fire in our country each day of the year. 
The saddest fact about these fires is that so many of 
them are due to carelessness. 

Forest Fires.—Some of the most disastrous fires that 
124 



occur are forest fires. If you live in a wooded section, 
you must have seen the sky lit up for miles by acres of 
blazing woods. The great trees were decades, perhaps 
centuries, in growing, but one careless act, such as a 
camp fire left burning, laid waste in a few hours what 
nature was long, long years in perfecting. It is esti- 


A Forest Fire 

mated that one third of all the timber in our country 
is destroyed by forest fires. The United States govern¬ 
ment has established a number of forest preserves 
throughout the country and maintains in each area a 
fire patrol to put out fires. 

Fire Fighters and Insurance. —Loss of life and de- 
125 




struction of property are not all that is to be charged 
against fires; the people of America spend millions of 
dollars annually in maintaining fire departments and 
in paying fire insurance. Fire departments are a great 
comfort; we feel safer when we lie down to sleep, know¬ 
ing that brave firemen will come to our help in case of 
fire. Still, if people were more careful and there were 
fewer fires, your city would not have to purchase so 
many engines or employ such a large number of fire 
fighters. Besides, many millions of dollars paid each 
year to fire insurance companies would be saved. Few 
men fail to insure their property against loss by fire, 
but if fires were infrequent occurrences insurance would 
cost much less. 

Carelessness. —A fire insurance paper gives the fol¬ 
lowing incidents to show that carelessness is at the 
bottom of some of the greatest fires. A woman in 
Augusta, Georgia, who was using an electric iron, forgot 
to turn off the current when she went to luncheon. 
The result of this little piece of carelessness was the 
burning of a large part of Augusta. Property to the 
value of $5,000,000 was destroyed, and hundreds of 
people had to live in tents until their homes were re¬ 
built. In Chelsea, Texas, the people thought a “ dump ” 
was a good thing until it caught fire and burned them 
out of their homes. In an Ohio school a stovepipe was 
too near the ceiling, and one hundred and seventy- 
three children and three teachers paid the penalty with 
their lives. A man threw a lighted cigarette into some 
trash in a shirtwaist factory, and one hundred and forty 
girls died. A hundred other examples might be given. 

Causes of Fire.—If you wish to prevent fires you 
126 


must watch the things listed below. With some excep¬ 
tions, they are among the most useful things in the 
world, but, handled carelessly, they cause enormous 
destruction. Take up each one of these articles sepa- 



Photograph by Underwood and Underwood 

Danger—Cleaning with Gasoline 


rately and tell how it should be handled so as to lessen 
the danger of fires: 

Matches. Gasoline. 

Bonfires. Electricity. 

Lamps. Waste paper and rags. 

Stoves. Lighted cigarettes and cigars. 

How the Community Works to Prevent Fires.—We 
have many laws to prevent fires. It is against the law, 

127 




for instance, to sell kerosene after dark. Nearly every 
state has laws stating in what way gasoline, gunpowder, 
and other explosives and inflammable material shall be 
stored. Cities have codes requiring that buildings of a 
certain height shall be fireproof; that in certain sections 
all buildings must be of brick or stone; that buildings of a 
certain height must be equipped with fire escapes; and 
that all electric wiring must be done in a thorough man¬ 
ner. A person who seeks to erect a building of any kind 
must go to the building inspector’s office, file plans, and 
secure a permit. The law requires that theaters, hotels, 
and other public buildings shall have a sufficient number 
of exits, clearly marked with red lights. The law also 
demands that the doors of public buildings, including 
schoolhouses, shall open outward. There are other regu¬ 
lations of a similar sort. 


Club Activities 

1. Inspect carefully your home from cellar to garret, including the 
back yard, and make a list of the things that might cause a fire. Pay special 
attention to stovepipes, waste paper, kerosene, matches, and oiled rags. 
Give this list to your parents and do what you can to remove the dangers. 

2. Appoint a committee of your club to inspect the school for the pur¬ 
pose of making a similar list. 

3. Invite a fireman to visit your school and talk to you about fire pre¬ 
vention. Have him explain to you how to turn in a fire alarm. 

4. Invite some pupil to bring a fire extinguisher to school and demon¬ 
strate how it puts out a fire. 

5. Get the entire school to observe a fire prevention week during which 
cellars, garrets, and back yards are to be cleaned up with the view of lessen¬ 
ing fire hazards. 


128 


CHAPTER XXI 
EDUCATION 

Problem: (1) To study the growth of schools; and (2) 
to find out all you can about the schools of your community 
and your state. 

Early Schools. —Once upon a time there were few 
schools; the majority of people did not go to school at 
all. Taxes were not paid, as they are now, in order to 
provide education for all the children of a neighbor¬ 
hood. Men of means would hire a teacher to instruct 
their children or a teacher would come into a neigh¬ 
borhood and open a school as a business, charging 
children a certain fee for attending it. Thus education 
was the property of a few, not the free possession of 
all. There was a vast difference in every neighborhood 
between the me$ of learning and the poor people who 
could not read or write and who had to make their 
mark when they signed a legal document. 

Public Schools. —In the United States, however, 
there early arose a feeling that everybody should have 
some education. It was felt that it was a good invest¬ 
ment to found schools which all children might attend 
free of charge. Property owners in some places were 
persuaded that it would be to their benefit, as well as 
to the benefit of others, to pay taxes for free schools. 
They came to see that the greater intelligence of the 
people resulting from education increased the wealth 
of a locality. There was another reason why free 
129 



/ 


( 130 ) A Modern School Building 














schools were needed. Early in the nineteenth century 
many of the states of the United States conferred on 
all male citizens the right to vote; before this time 
only property owners voted. It would not do to have 
voters who could not read, for such men would not vote 
intelligently. Consequently some of the states estab¬ 
lished public schools, and gradually the system spread 
throughout the country. At present every state in the 
Union has good public schools employing large numbers 
of teachers and spending millions of dollars. No 
investment ever brought so rich a return as public 
schools have to the United States. Partly because of 
them America is the foremost country on earth. 

Democracy and Schools.—The public schools have 
had much to do with the growth of democracy in the 
United States. There is no longer the old division 
between the educated and the illiterate. In modern 
communities, all the people have some education. 
Men who work in manual trades are well informed 
instead of being ignorant and helpless, as they once 
were. Indeed, there is no great difference between the 
workmen of today, intelligent, well paid, and well 
dressed, and business and professional men. The 
public schools, then, have done much to overthrow 
the old differences between persons based on difference 
in knowledge, and to put people who were once poor and 
ignorant on a level with the educated. This is true 
democracy. 

Place of the School.—The place of the school in the 
life of the community is constantly widening in scope. 
Fine buildings replace the cabins that were once 
schoolhouses. Once the “three R’s,” reading, writing, 
131 


and arithmetic, were all that was taught. Today 
schools not only give literary instruction, but train 
boys and girls in ways of making a living. They also 
serve as community centers, for adults as well as for 
children. School buildings are used for lectures, 
amusements, and public meetings. Teachers take an 
equal part in community affairs with lawyers and 
preachers. Their knowledge makes them valuable, 
and they more and more tend to become leaders in 
local and national affairs. They hold important offices 
in every city and state, and not many years ago a 
teacher was President of the United States. In every 
way the influence of schools is growing, broadening the 
country and bringing it countless benefits. 

Elementary Education.—Elementary education is 
that period of schooling that extends from the age of 
six to about fourteen or fifteen. In many states ele¬ 
mentary education is enforced by law, and the parents 
who do not send their children to school are liable to 
punishment. In this way the government protects 
children against the possible carelessness of parents. 
In the elementary schools children learn reading, 
writing, arithmetic, grammar and composition, geog¬ 
raphy, history, and other branches. They also often 
take up domestic science and manual training. The 
result of this system is that boys and girls who have to 
leave school at the end of the elementary period are 
not unprepared for the duties of life. Yet the benefits 
of high school are great. Boys and girls who attend 
high school put a finish on elementary education that is 
of the utmost importance afterward. It marks the 
difference between knowing things a little and knowing 
132 



them well. High school graduates are able to use 
English to better advantage than people who have 
had only elementary education. Their knowledge of 
mathematics is much greater. A further study of 
history and government broadens their vision and 
increases their knowledge of geography, while science 
prepares them to live and work in the modern world* 


A Class in Cooking 

They are ready for the battle of life and therefore their 
chances of success are good. 

Vocational Education. —One of the most important 
aims of education is to prepare boys and girls for 
occupations. Many states now provide vocational 
schools where skilled trades and other callings are 
taught. Trades, agriculture, business, domestic occu¬ 
pations may all be learned in these schools, and in most 
states colleges for teaching law, educational work, 
133 






medicine, dentistry, pharmacy, and the various branches 
of engineering are supported by the government. The 
opportunities for obtaining education of any sort are 
now so great that few boys or girls remain ignorant 
and inefficient except by choice. 

Special Schools.—Many boys and girls wish to 
learn an occupation without being able to give their 
whole time to the training. Some are obliged to go to 
work to support themselves on leaving the elementary 
school or high school. Modern schools provide for the 
needs of these ambitious workers. Part-time schools 
give students the opportunity to make a living at their 
trades while learning; they go to school for a time and 
also work at their occupations, and continue this until 
they have mastered their callings. Night schools provide 
instruction for those who have no opportunity to at¬ 
tend part-time schools. Most of the states now support 
extension work in education. By this method teachers 
from colleges go from place to place giving instruction 
in all sorts of subjects; information is also sent out 
from extension centers to those who desire it. Further, 
there are correspondence schools which conduct regular 
courses in almost every branch of learning through the 
mails, first sending information and then examination 
questions. There are many other kinds of schools. One 
of the most interesting is the open-air school, which is 
intended to strengthen the health of delicate children. 

Control of Education.—While the United States 
government maintains an educational bureau and 
spends much money in promoting public instruction, 
control of education is in the hands of the states. In 
fact, it is the most important function of the states. 

134 


In every commonwealth there is a head of the educa¬ 
tional system, called state superintendent or commis¬ 
sioner of education. In many states there are boards of 
education, which usually adopt the textbooks to be 
used in elementary and high schools. Locally, schools 
are controlled by city and county boards. 

Payment for Education.—Schools are largely sup¬ 
ported by local taxation—usually a part of the tax on 
real estate and other property goes to them. The 
state also levies special taxes for education and main¬ 
tains educational funds: this money is distributed 
among the localities in aid of the schools. In some 
states, for instance, the state government pays a part 
of the cost of new school buildings while the locality 
bears the remainder. In this way, better school 
buildings are constructed now than formerly. It is 
interesting to note that the amount of money spent on 
public education is constantly increasing and that 
taxation for this purpose is borne by the citizens with¬ 
out complaint. The benefits of education are so great 
and so obvious that few people murmur against a 
system which imposes a small burden on everybody for 
the good of all. 

Club Activities 

1. Find out all you can about compulsory education laws and whether 
your state has any. 

2. Answer these questions: 

What board has charge of the affairs of your school? 

Are you going to high school? To college? Why? 

Does your state help boys and girls to go to college? Where? 

How? 

What colleges and universities are there in your state? 

3. Discuss in class this question: Should children be compelled to attend 
school? 


135 


CHAPTER XXH 

LAWS 

Problems: To learn (1) something about the laws; and 
(2) the penalties for their violation. 

What Laws Are. —Laws are regulations made by the 
government to protect life, property, health, dumb 
animals, business, institutions, the rights of people, and 
other things. Many laws permit us to act in certain 
ways. Many other laws prohibit us from certain actions. 
To violate laws which prohibit the doing of things is to 
make oneself liable to penalties. Serious violation is 
crime , and crime is considered an offense against the 
community and is punished by it. To act against the 
law in ways which affect not the community but only 
private persons, especially the property of persons, is 
to make oneself liable to civil suits—that is, to lawsuits 
to gain compensation or damages. 

Cases in Court.—Cases of petty violation of laws 
and suits in regard to small debts and small amounts of 
property are tried in the lowest courts, the justices’ 
courts in the county and the police courts in cities. 
Cases of graver crime or those involving larger amounts 
of property come before the circuit court in the county 
and the circuit or corporation court in the city. Cases 
tried in these courts are often appealed —that is, carried 
to higher courts. This is especially true of civil suits; 
there must be special reasons for carrying criminal cases 
to other courts. The supreme court is the highest state 
136 


court, but from its decisions there is an appeal to the 
United States Supreme Court in certain cases. But 
since the latter court can only hear cases that concern 
in some way the powers of the United States govern¬ 
ment, most cases go no farther than the state courts. 

Penalties for Crime. —Crime is a serious matter. In 
former times nearly all crimes were punished by death: 
theft of property of more than a shilling’s worth; for¬ 
gery; counterfeiting; robbery; housebreaking and bur¬ 
glary, and others. Small offenses met with such pen¬ 
alties as the pillory, which was a wooden board that 
held the hands fast, or the stocks, which was a frame 
that confined the legs. The prisoner in the pillory or 
stocks had to remain motionless for hours in some public 
place, exposed to heat or cold and the insults of passers- 
by. Other offenses were punished by public whip¬ 
pings; the whipping post was a prominent feature of 
every community a century or so ago. 

Improvement in Law. —People felt that such laws 
were too severe, that an effort should be made to re¬ 
claim criminals rather than kill or hurt them. In the 
United States, Thomas Jefferson was among the first 
to soften the laws: he revised the criminal code of 
Virginia. About a century and a quarter ago peniten¬ 
tiaries began to be built, and criminals were confined in 
them for a term instead of being hanged or whipped for 
offenses. Before this time prisoners had been kept in 
jail awaiting trial or until the payment of their debts, 
but not as punishment. 

Laws Benefit All.—Because of the laws against kill¬ 
ing or injuring people and taking their property from 
them, the great majority of persons go about their work 
137 


in security. Many crimes are indeed committed, but 
they are few in comparison with the number of people 
who go through their lives without criminal injuries. 
It is the duty of all citizens to teach respect for law by 
their example. People are often tempted to violate the 
law in small ways, such as failing to obey the traffic 
regulations. Small violations of law, however, tend in 
the long run to weaken the respect of the public for 
law, and in that way to injure the community. 

Anarchy. —The condition when law is generally un¬ 
observed, or when there is no such thing as law, is 
called anarchy. Wherever there is anarchy the suffer¬ 
ings of the people are terrible. Murder and robbery go 
unpunished; the brutal overpower the weak; and 
human beings become like beasts. Probably the great¬ 
est evil that can befall a community—local or national 
—is to fall into anarchy. 

Progress and Law. —Human progress is to a large 
extent the result of law. Because the law has protected 
the lives and property of men they have gone about 
their work in peace, built homes, saved money, and 
made discoveries and inventions. Those countries 
where the law is enforced are usually prosperous and 
happy: countries where the law may be broken with¬ 
out much danger of punishment are nearly always 
backward and miserable. In such lands life is never 
safe, and everyone fears that robbers will take his prop¬ 
erty. In the following chapter we shall study the 
methods of the government in seeking to find the prob¬ 
able criminal when a crime has been committed and then 
to determine whether the accused person is guilty or 
innocent. 


138 


Prison Reform.—-Confinement in prison has under¬ 
gone a great change from early times. Children were 
kept in prison with older criminals, a practice which 
hardened them in wrongdoing. The inmates were 
harshly treated by the prison officials: they wore repul¬ 
sive clothes; they worked hard, or were kept in solitary 
confinement; they had almost no recreations to lighten 
their dark days. Few of them ever reformed, because 
the treatment they received tended to drive them to 
despair. But at present imprisonment is very different. 
Convicts are now kept in prison, not only because they 
would be a danger to the community if they were 
allowed to run free, but in order to reform them. Many 
criminals are ignorant men who have had no home train¬ 
ing, and who commit crimes without clearly understand¬ 
ing the wrongfulness of their acts. In prison they are 
taught right and wrong, and are frequently led to a 
better life. They are given good books to read, and 
they have pleasures and outdoor sports as well as 
duties. Children are no longer kept in prisons with 
grown criminals. When they commit crimes, they are 
sent to reformatories, where they receive a good moral 
training and are taught trades. Often they become 
useful citizens when they go out into the world. At 
present, criminals sometimes have their sentences sus¬ 
pended—that is, they do not go to prison so long as 
they live rightly—while other criminals are released 
from the penitentiary after serving a part of their sen¬ 
tences, and do not have to go back unless they break 
the laws again. In the same way, children who have 
committed offenses are put on 'probation —that is, 
they are permitted to go at large so long as they 
119 


behave themselves and report to the court at regular 
intervals. The tendency of modern imprisonment for 
crime is to fit inmates of prisons and reformatories for 
the struggle of life, so that the weak and ignorant may 
gain strength and knowledge. The theory is that one 
who commits a crime is, in a sense, sick and in need of 
moral and mental treatment of a certain kind which 
will bring him into harmony with the world. 

Club Activities 

1. Appoint a committee to visit your county jail and find out why the 
prisoners are confined. 

2. Tell what you know of prison improvement. 

3. Debate this question: Resolved, That capital punishment should 
be abolished. 


140 


CHAPTER XXIII 
TRIALS 

Problems: (1) To study the various stages of a trial; 
and {%) to learn why the forms of the law should be strictly 
observed. 

Criminal Investigation.—When a crime has been 
committed, the officers of the law at once arrest the 
person or the persons known or suspected to b # e guilty, 
if there is knowledge or strong suspicion. Sometimes, 
however, not only is the identity of the criminal un¬ 
known but it is even uncertain whether or not a crime 
has actually been committed. This often happens in 
the case of mysterious deaths. The coroner , whose 
duty it is to investigate all cases of death by violence 
or from unknown causes, forms a coroner’s jury, and 
this jury decides if there is good reason for suspecting 
a crime. 

The Grand Jury.—In the case of murder and of all 
other grave crimes, a grand jury, so called because it 
usually consists of a rather large number of members, 
sits to consider the evidence. If a murder has been 
committed and the criminal is unknown, the officers of 
the law—the sheriff and prosecuting attorney—with 
the help of police or detectives, seek to discover clues 
that will fasten the guilt on some one. If the evidence 
seems sufficient, a warrant is issued by the officers of 
the law and the suspected person is arrested and lodged 
in jail. In less serious offenses, he will be released for 
141 


a time if he can find friends to go bail for him. That 
is, the suspected person is freed when some other 
persons agree to pay a certain sum of money if he 
fails to appear for trial at a certain date, and give 
security for it. Persons suspected of murder are 
usually not bailed. At a certain time the grand jury, 
which may be the regular jury that considers all 
crimes committed within a period of time, or a special 
jury convened for the case, hears the evidence and 
decides whether or not the suspected person should be 
held for trial. 

The Indictment. —If the grand jury finds that the 
evidence points to the guilt of the suspected person, 
he is held for trial and an indictment is framed. The 
indictment is a statement of facts about the crime 
committed and it must be drawn in strict conformity 
with the law or else the trial that follows may be 
thrown out by a higher court. The indictment is the 
act that hands the suspected person from the grand 
jury to the trial jury. 

The Petit Jury. —The trial jury is known as the 
petit , or little jury, because it is smaller than the grand 
jury, consisting of twelve men or twelve men and 
women. Why is a man accused of crime tried by a 
jury at all? The practice comes down from the distant 
past of England, when persons on trial often could not 
depend on judges for right treatment. It was found 
that a man had a better chance to secure justice when a 
jury of his neighbors sat to decide if he had com¬ 
mitted a crime than when a judge, who might have 
reasons to be unfair, decided the matter. Conse^ 
quently, trial by jury became fixed in English law and 
142 


the usage has descended to us. The jury is chosen by 
lot from a number of names in a box. Both the prose¬ 
cuting attorney and the attorney for the defense have 
the right to challenge the selection of persons whom 
they think may not be just to their side of the case. 

Fairness of the Jury. —The law lays much stress on 
getting unprejudiced jurors. Persons called for jury 
duty are always asked if they have read newspaper 
accounts of the crime and made up their minds as to 
the guilt of the person accused. If they have done so, 
they are not accepted as jurymen. How careful the 
law is to secure fair-minded juries is illustrated by the 
famous Chicago anarchist case of 1886. 

In May, 1886 , as police officers were dispersing a meeting 
of strikers in Chicago, some unknown person threw a bomb, 
killing and wounding a number of the policemen. Since the 
anarchists of Chicago, by means of publications and speeches, 
had been urging strikers to commit dynamite outrages, they 
were brought to trial as accomplices, or aiders, in the mur¬ 
ders. Public feeling in Chicago ran high against them. 
Large numbers of people were examined for jury duty and 
were not accepted on account of their having formed a posi¬ 
tive opinion on the case. Not until weeks had passed and 
nearly a thousand men had been examined was a jury at 
length selected. 

The Trial.—The prosecuting attorney , or common¬ 
wealth’s attorney, begins the trial by bringing forward 
the “ witnesses for the prosecution.” These are persons 
whose testimony tends to prove that the accused has 
committed the crime. After they have told their 
stories, the attorney for the defense seeks to break 
down their evidence by cross-examining them—that is, 
attempting by means of questions to catch them in 
contradictory statements and so make it appear that 

143 



they are mistaken. In the same way, the prosecuting 
attorney cross-examines the witnesses for the defense, 
whose statements go to show that the defendant did 
not commit the crime. When the witnesses on both 
sides are dismissed, the prosecuting attorney and the 
attorney for the defense sum up the case in speeches. 


Courtesy of the Philadelphia Public Ledger 

A Trial in Progress 

The judge then reviews the evidence and tells the jury 
what the law is. The final act takes place when the 
jury goes to a private room and decides on its verdict. 
Sometimes hours or days pass before an agreement can 
be reached, for it is necessary for the decision of a jury 
in a criminal trial to be unanimous, though not always 
so in civil suits in some states. When the jury has 

144 




agreed on a verdict, it goes back to the court room, and 
the foreman informs the judge. In case of murder in 
the first degree, the law usually fixes the punishment at 
death or imprisonment for life. In other crimes, the 
judge in some states determines what the prison sen¬ 
tence shall be: he has great latitude in this respect. 
In case the jury reports “Not guilty,” the person on 
trial is at once released and he cannot be tried again 
for the same crime even though new evidence comes to 
light. By English law, which in its principles is also 
American law, a man can be tried only once on a charge 
unless the jury fails to render a verdict one way or the 
other. 

Necessary to Prove Guilt.— In some countries of 
the world, persons on trial have to prove their inno¬ 
cence. By English and American law, a man is sup¬ 
posed to be innocent until he is proved guilty. Actual 
proof is necessary: no matter how strong the belief in 
the prisoner’s guilt may be, he is released unless evi¬ 
dence is brought forward by the prosecution. This 
attempt of the law to protect the rights of persons 
being tried is well illustrated in the famous trial of 
Aaron Burr for treason in 1807. 

Aaron Burr, who had been Vice President of the United 
States, was put on trial in 1807 at Richmond, Virginia, before 
the United States court, with Chief Justice Marshall pre¬ 
siding. It was very generally believed that Burr intended 
to separate the Southwest from the United States and set 
up another republic or an empire and that he had raised a 
body of armed men for that purpose. That he had raised a 
body of armed men for some purpose was certain, but it 
was not shown that he had actually done anything hostile 
to the United States. Justice Marshall summed up the 
evidence in favor of Burr, because the Constitution of the 

145 


United States declares that treason consists in making war 
against the United States or in aiding an enemy to make 
war and it had not been proved that Burr had done this. 
Burr was thereupon acquitted, though the jury was so hostile 
to him that instead of rendering a verdict of “Not guilty/’ 
it brought in one of “Not proven.” 

Witnesses Must be Allowed to Testify.—In another 
way the law seeks to protect a person on trial. It 
affords him every opportunity to bring forward testi¬ 
mony in his favor. The attorney for the defense has 
the right to present anybody who has evidence to give, 
and the prosecuting attorney cannot hinder this. The 
judge sees that both sides in the case have fair play 
during the trial. In the one celebrated instance in 
American history where a judge was notably unfair to 
the accused, he himself was later brought to trial and 
narrowly escaped removal from the bench by way of 
punishment. 

Right of Appeal.—In the effort to secure justice, the 
law permits a person convicted of crime to appeal from 
the court in which the case is tried to a higher court 
if any mistake or irregularity has occurred in the 
trial. If the higher court finds that the case has not 
been tried in full agreement with the law, it may order 
a new trial. If this is done, a new jury is drawn and 
the evidence is once more presented. It often happens 
that a second trial results in the acquittal of the prisoner 
or in a lightening of his sentence. Thus while a man 
who is acquitted cannot be tried a second time for the 
same offense, a man who has been convicted may be, 
provided that a court of appeals decides that the 
trial has not been entirely in agreement with the law 
or there is some other weighty reason. This is a good 
146 


illustration of the intent of the law to prevent innocent 
persons from being convicted of crime and suffering 
unmerited punishment. 

Club Activities 

1. Answer these questions: 

Have legal forms an important meaning? Why do you think so? 

What are some of the safeguards of the law? 

What legal principle is illustrated by the Burr trial? 

Why must the jury agree in a criminal trial? 

2. Describe the process by which a jury is chosen. W r hat instances 
can you give of the care of the law in selecting jurymen? 

3. During the next session of your circuit or corporation court visit 
the court room and watch the proceedings. 

4. Stage a mock trial, following the procedure of your court. 


147 


CHAPTER XXIV 

CITY GOVERNMENT 

Problems: (1) To study the various forms of city 
government; and (2) to discuss the best form. 

How a Village Grows into a Town. — A village con¬ 
sisting of, let us say, a store, a church, and half a 
dozen homes has no occasion for a government separate 
from the county or district in which it is situated. 
When, however, the village grows into a place of a 
thousand or more inhabitants, it has needs which begin 
to cut it off from the county: it must have streets, 
lights, sewers, a water system, policemen, and firemen. 
The community therefore becomes incorporated; that 
is, it gets from the legislature a town charter which 
permits it to have a mayor and council and a few 
officers of its own. But the town does not separate 
entirely from the county; it is still, to some extent, a 
part of the county, having many things in common with 
the county. 

How the Town Becomes a City. —As the years go 
by, this town or borough may grow into a place of 
many thousand people, with factories and mills. It 
needs a government strictly its own and obtains a city 
charter from the legislature. In many states it then 
becomes entirely separate from the county within whose 
limits it lies. The county has one government, the 
city another and distinct government of its own. In 
some states, however, a city remains a part of the 
143 


county. The city charter enumerates the officers and 
departments the city is to have, with their powers, and 
tells how the city laws, or ordinances, are to be made 
and how the funds are to be raised for the city govern¬ 
ment. The powers of this government are strictly 
defined by the charter; it cannot do anything that is 
not expressly permitted by the charter. 

The Three Forms of City Government.—There are 
three forms of city government, the council, the com- 



Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 


New York Skyline 


mission, and the city or business manager. In the 
first form, the council is the chief arm of the govern¬ 
ment; in the second, a commission is in authority; in 
the third, a single person, the city manager, directs 
affairs. The council is the old form of city govern¬ 
ment and most cities are still conducted under it. The 
commission and city manager types of government 
came into existence not many years ago; a number of 
cities have adopted one or the other of these newer 
systems. 


149 





Branches of City Government. —City government, 
like state and national, has three branches— the 
executive, the legislative, the judicial. In the council 
system, city government closely resembles state and 
national government; but in the commission and city 
manager plans the difference is radical. 

Executive Branch.—The mayor is the head of the 
executive branch of the government in the council 
plan. His duties are important. He has charge of the 
city just as the president of a manufacturing company 
has general control of the factory. He must see that 
the various departments do their work properly. He 
usually appoints and removes the heads of departments. 
He advises the council on the passage of city laws, or 
ordinances, and the raising of revenue. At one time 
the mayor was also the judge of the city police court, 
but this duty has been taken from him. The mayor, 
however, continues to preside at public meetings and 
to welcome distinguished visitors to the city. In the 
commission form of government, the mayor is one of 
the commissioners and has little more power than his 
associates. In the city manager government, the 
mayor has even less power. 

The Departments. —Large cities have many de¬ 
partments, sometimes, as in the case of New York, 
employing thousands of clerks. The following is a list 
of the departments in a certain city of 200,000 people* 

Schools. Public Utilities. 

Law. Public Works. 

Finance. Public Welfare. 

The department of law represents the city in suits 
and gives it legal advice; that of finance collects and 
150 


disburses the city’s funds; that of public welfare takes 
care of the purity of the food supply, hospitals, public 
baths, and street cleaning; that of public utilities 
manages the gas, water, and electric lighting plants 
of the city; that of public works cares for the making 
and upkeep of streets, bridges, playgrounds, parks, and 
cemeteries; that of schools attexids to public education. 

Legislative Branch. —In the council government, 
the legislative branch is the most important. The size 
of the council varies considerably in different cities, 
being larger in large cities. The members are not paid 
and serve from a sense of duty or as a means of bring¬ 
ing themselves to public notice. Meetings are usually 
held every week or two weeks. The council sometimes 
wields a great power, authorizing public works that 
cost millions of dollars. In the commission and city 
manager governments, the council lessens in importance. 
Cities may not even have a council, since the com¬ 
mission may take its place. In city manager govern¬ 
ment the council usually passes measures recommended 
by the city manager. The city council ordinarily con¬ 
sists of two bodies, the board of aldermen and the 
common council. In most cities, the members of the 
council are elected from wards into which the city is 
divided; sometimes the whole body of voters elects the 
entire council. 

How Ordinances are Passed. —You may be inter¬ 
ested to know how an ordinance is passed. The council 
is a rather informal body, very unlike legislatures and 
Congress, which have elaborate rules. Discussion is 
more or less open, much like the meetings of boards. 
A member of one branch of the council introduces a 
151 


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measure, often after getting the advice of the city 
attorney. The proposed ordinance is then referred to 
a committee, which considers it and sends it back to 
the council with a favorable or unfavorable report. If 
it is passed in this branch of the council, it is then sent 
on to the other branch, where the same course is 
followed. After it has passed both branches, it goes to 
the mayor for approval. The council committees usually 
correspond to the departments of the city government. 
Sometimes they are important, because in some cases 
efforts are made to smuggle improper measures through 
committees and have them passed as ordinances. 

The City Budget. —Many cities now have what is 
called a budget. The budget shows how much money 
the city will have for the coming year and divides it 
among the various departments according to their 
wants. Each department tries to convince the finance 
committee, which makes the budget, that it needs more 
money than is assigned it, and frequent ‘'hearings’’ are 
devoted to the budget. 

Judicial Branch. —In some cities there is a circuit or 
district court. Other cities have no circuit court but 
only the corporation or hustings court. The police 
court, presided over by the police judge, hears cases in 
which people are charged with violations of the city 
ordinances—also small crimes, such as petty thefts, 
and some other cases. The juvenile court tries the 
cases of children of certain ages. Children are rarely 
punished by juvenile courts for first offenses; they are 
put “on probation”—that is, they are allowed to go 
home but are required to appear before the judge at 
intervals and show that they are behaving properly. 

153 


The probation method has sometimes turned reckless 
boys into good citizens. There are many other city 
courts. In some cities there are criminal courts dealing 
only with crimes. The law and equity court handles 
disputes arising from property and contracts. The 
orphan’s or probate court admits wills to record, settles 
estates left by deceased persons, and appoints guardians 
for children. 

The People’s Share in City Government. —The 

government of a great city, spending many millions of 
dollars a year, is a complex and difficult matter. It 
has been hard, however, to arouse the people of the 
United States to the importance of city government. 
For this reason many abuses in the management of 
municipal affairs have arisen. A few years ago cities 
were frequently governed by small groups of politicians 
and business men without regard to the public welfare. 
That was the day of the “boss,” who kept his friends in 
power and had ordinances passed for the benefit of 
certain interests. But there has been so strong a 
revolt against this system that in many cities bosses no 
longer exist. Such organizations as the Chamber of 
Commerce and the Civic Improvement Association 
have helped city government by carrying on campaigns 
for needed changes and improvements. The news¬ 
papers, by attacking corrupt methods, have done much 
to bring about a better era in city government. 

Council Form. —As said before, the oldest form of 
city government and the one followed in most cities is 
the council form. Its features have been included in 
the foregoing discussion. 

Commission Form. —-The commission city govern- 
154 


ment grew out of the demand for better administration. 
It was felt that the councils were usually too large and 
too busy to do their work properly, for councilmen are 
not able to devote much time to public affairs. People 
came to believe that city government would be better 
if it was looked on as business rather than politics, 
and that trained experts would handle the government 
more efficiently and economically than politicians. For 
these reasons the commission government came into 
existence—originally at Galveston, Texas. Under this 
plan there are three or five commissioners, elected by 
the people for a certain term of years. They are some¬ 
times associated with a council, but in other cases pass 
the laws as well as carry them out. The commissioners 
therefore are in complete control of the city for the term 
of their office, appointing and removing officials and 
seeing that the departments are rightly conducted. If 
they do not give satisfaction, they are defeated for 
another term in the following election. 

City Manager. —The city manager government is a 
kind of compromise between the council and commission 
plans. The city manager has far greater power than 
the mayor in the council government: his control of 
the departments is usually absolute and the council 
ordinarily passes such ordinances as he wishes. But 
the council is not done away with; it exists and has 
some power, especially over finances. It thus acts as a 
sort of check on the city manager. This plan of mu¬ 
nicipal government originated in Staunton, Virginia. 
Dayton, Ohio, and some other important cities have 
adopted it and it seems to be more popular at present 
than the commission plan. 

155 


Club Activities 


1. Make a list of the officers of your city who are elected by the people 
and another list of those who are appointed. 

2. Appoint classmates to make reports on council government; on the 
city manager plan; on the commission form of government. 

3. Appoint a classmate to report on the form of government in your 
town. 

4. Vote on the plan of city government which you think best. 

5. Appoint a committee to examine your city charter and report on it. 
They should tell how the charter can be changed. 

6. Place on your bulletin board all the clippings from the newspapers 
that refer to new ordinances passed by your city council. Include also 
clippings that tell of the work of the different city departments. 


CHAPTER XXV 
COUNTY GOVERNMENT 

Problems: (1) To study county government; and (2) 
to find out all you can about county officers. 

Importance of the Local Community.—When we are 
about to elect a President, or when we are at war with 
a foreign country, we hear a great deal about the nation. 
When a governor and members of the legislature are to 
be elected, we hear much about the state. After all, 
however, the most important government to us is that 
with which we come in closest contact—that of our 
county, town, or city. Every year your father has to 
pay his taxes. The amount depends largely upon what 
it costs to conduct the affairs of the county or city. 
Do you have good roads, streets, and schools? Your 
county government is good or bad according to the 
answer made to these questions. It is therefore im¬ 
portant to make a careful study of the local govern¬ 
ment, so that when you are grown you may know its 
needs and vote for officers who will attend to them 
honestly and skillfully. 

Origin of the County.—Long before our country was 
settled the county form of government existed in 
England. The colonists who settled in Virginia brought 
this form of local government with them, and gradually 
each state has been divided into counties. The New 
England colonies did not have this kind of local govern¬ 
ment, but each little settlement or town governed itself. 

157 


Although the New England states are now divided into 
counties, yet the people of this section still cling to 
their “Town Meeting.” It has thus come about that 
there are different types of counties in different states. 
The chief difference is that in some states the county 
government practically controls all important local 
affairs, while in other states the district or township is the 
main unit in county government. In Virginia and other 
states, the different districts of the county are not very 
important. The taxes are levied and all the county 
affairs are managed by a board of supervisors or com¬ 
missioners who meet regularly at the county seat. In 
the New England states, on the contrary, each district 
or “town” governs itself, and the county has little 
power. 

“Town Meeting. ,, —The “Town Meeting” in New 
England (which is a district meeting) is a very inter¬ 
esting event. The voters come together once a year, 
vote on the tax rate, choose their selectmen, school 
trustees, and other officials, and decide all other ques¬ 
tions brought up for discussion. The fact that most 
citizens take part in these meetings and mingle in the 
discussions has had much to do with training the people 
in self-government and democratic customs. 

County Supervisors or Commissioners. —In many 
states the most important county officers are the super¬ 
visors or commissioners. They come together at the 
courthouse, just as a town or city council meets in the 
city hall, and decide all important questions for the 
county. They fix the tax rate, appropriate money for 
schools and roads, maintain county hospitals and farms 
for the sick and for paupers, offer rewards for the 
158 


capture of criminals, and pass such laws for the county 
as the state permits counties to pass. The legislative 
power of the county government is not large. County 
government is mainly executive. 

The Sheriff. —You are perhaps familiar with the 
duties of the sheriff of your county. He has charge of 
the jail, arrests criminals, preserves the peace, and in 
some states collects the taxes. He is the most respon- 



A Modern Bridge 


sible officer in the county, because the preservation of 
order depends on him. 

The Superintendent of Schools. —This officer has 
general charge of all the public schools of the county. 
In many sections of the country the county superin¬ 
tendent acts largely as an adviser, because each district 
or town has a school board on which rests the duty of 
managing the schools. You should make a careful 
study of how your schools are conducted. Who makes 
the rules for pupils and teachers? How are the school 
159 



trustees chosen? Do you have a county school board, 
or does each district have trustees? What does it cost 
each year to run your school, and where do the funds 
come from? 

The Clerk of the Court.—This officer has many 
important duties. He records deeds and wills, issues 
marriage licenses, and keeps the records of all cases 
tried in the courts. Have you ever visited the clerk’s 
office at the courthouse? It is very interesting to see 
the great books in which the records are kept and the 
fireproof cases in which these books are protected 
against fire. 

The Prosecuting Attorney.—This officer is a lawyer, 
of course, and it is his duty to prosecute all persons 
charged with crime. If a man commits a crime, the 
sheriff arrests him and places him in jail until he can 
be tried. When he is brought to trial, the prosecuting 
attorney conducts the case against him and tries to 
convict him, provided the evidence tends to show that 
he is guilty. 

Other County Officers.—Other officers are treasurer; 
tax assessor; coroner; road engineer; health officer; 
constable, and justice of the peace. 

How County Officers Are Chosen.—The supervisors, 
sheriff, clerk of the court, and most other county officers 
are elected by the voters, usually for a term of from two 
to four years. If they are honest and capable, the 
county’s business will be economically and wisely con¬ 
ducted. It is therefore the duty of all grown persons to 
become voters and help to put into office the most 
capable men. 

County Courts.—Formerly in many states each 
160 


county had its own court, which tried all the cases relat¬ 
ing to that county. In most states at present there are 
circuit, or district, courts comprising several counties, 
or a city and one or more counties. The circuit judge 
holds court at one county courthouse in his circuit and 
then goes to another. This system reduces somewhat 
the cost of maintaining courts. There is also a chancery 
court, usually presided over by the circuit judge, to 
hear certain cases; and justices’ courts, which try such 
small offenses as are dealt with in cities by the police 
court. 

How the County Gets Money. —Money is needed to 
pay the salaries of the officers, and to carry on the work 
of a county. Thousands of dollars must be spent 
annhally on schools and roads. This money is raised 
by levying taxes on each person according to the prop¬ 
erty he owns; corporations, such as railroads and 
mining companies, pay taxes as well as individuals. 
Some persons give false information about the value of 
their property in order to escape paying their just 
share. The good citizen is willing to do his full part 
toward paying the expenses of his county or town 
government. 

The County and the State. —The county is a part of 
the state, and as such must obey all state laws. If the 
legislature passes a law requiring all children to attend 
school, the county cannot change this law. The courts 
in a county are state courts; when a person commits a 
theft or attempts to kill another person he is violating 
the state law. Most states now help the counties to 
support schools and build roads, and in doing so make 
laws setting forth in what manner schools shall be con- 
161 


ducted and how roads shall be built. Some people 
argue that the state will gradually exercise so much 
authority that there will be no need for county govern¬ 
ment. But this is improbable. 

Club Activities 

1. See how many of these questions you can answer: 

How many counties are in your state? 

How many districts or townships are in your county? 

Are the supervisors or commissioners elected from the county 
at large or by districts and townships? 

Has your county government a head whose duties are similar 
to those of the mayor of a city or the governor of a state? 

What officers of your county are not elected by the people? 

Why is the justice of the peace an important officer? What 
kind of cases does he try? 

How does your county safeguard the health of its citizens? 

How are your officials paid—by fees or salaries? 

How are roads built and repaired in your county? Does the 
county do this important work or is it left to the districts? 

2. Make a visit to the county seat and report to the class on the uses 
to which the various buildings are put. 

3. Mention some state laws that must be obeyed in your county, also 
a law made by the county itself. 

4. Find out all you can about the duties of county commissioners. 


162 


CHAPTER XXVI 
STATE GOVERNMENT 

Problems: To learn (1) the activities of the various 
branches of the state government; and (2) the principles of 
the political parties. 

States and Their Constitutions. —When you hear 
people talk of the governor, the legislature, and the 
courts, you think of the state, for these things belong 
to the state government. You think of Tennessee, 
Massachusetts, Indiana, and other states. How did 
the states come into being? The original states were 
colonies of England and were thirteen in number. Each 
colony had its governor, its legislature, and its courts. 
When the American colonies revolted from England, 
they had to form new governments and to define their 
exact powers. Such plans of government are called 
constitutions. As each new state has been formed, it, 
too, has adopted a constitution. There are forty-eight 
states in the Union, and therefore forty-eight different 
constitutions. All of the state constitutions, however, 
agree in one thing—they contain nothing contrary to 
the Constitution of the United States, which is the 
supreme law of the land. While the state constitu¬ 
tions differ much in details, they are alike in the great 
principles of government. All of them secure to the 
people certain rights that have come down from fore¬ 
going generations. 

How Constitutions Are Made and Changed. —A 
163 


state constitution is made by a constitutional conven¬ 
tion composed of delegates elected by the counties and 
cities. They discuss each clause of the proposed con¬ 
stitution day by day for weeks or months and decide 
what shall be accepted. Thus a constitution grows, 
little by little, from a few principles until it covers all 
the subjects that lie within the power of the state. 
When the convention has framed the constitution, it is 
usually, but not always, offered to the people for adop¬ 
tion or rejection. The constitution may be changed by 
amendments. In most states an amendment is first 
accepted by the legislature, and is then voted on by the 
people at the following regular election. In a few states 
the people themselves, by a system called the initiative 
and referendum , change the constitution without action 
by the legislature. For instance, in Oregon, if eight 
per cent of the voters of the state sign a petition asking 
for a certain amendment, the latter is submitted to the 
vote of the people, and, if approved by a majority at 
the election, it becomes law without further measures. 
The initiative and referendum are also used in the case 
of laws passed by the legislature. By means of them, 
the people have a direct part in lawmaking. The state 
government, like that of the city, has executive, legis¬ 
lative, and judicial branches. 

The Governor. —The highest officer of the state is 
the governor, the chief executive. He is elected for a 
term of two or four years, according to the state. In 
Virginia the term is four years; in South Carolina 
it is two years. His powers are much the same in all 
states. The governor’s most important duties are as 
follows: 


164 


1. To send a message to the legislature on its meet¬ 
ing, recommending the passage of certain laws. In some 
states the governor draws up a budget outlining the 
expenses of the state government according to his recom¬ 
mendations. This budget shows the people about how 
much the government should cost and how the money 
should be spent. 

2. To appoint many officials, including the heads of 
a number of departments. In some states the adjutant- 
general, the head of the department of fisheries, and 
many other officials are appointed by the governor. In 
some states the governor appoints the judges of the 
higher courts, or some of them. However, the governor 
has power of removal in only a few cases. 

3. To veto bills passed by the legislature if they 
meet with his disapproval. When a bill is vetoed by 
the governor, it is sent back to the legislature, and may 
be passed over his veto by a two-thirds vote. 

4. To call out the state militia when local officials 
cannot protect life and property. 

5. To inspect the different state institutions to see 
that they are properly managed. 

6. To pardon persons convicted of crime. In some 
states this power has been taken away from the governor 
and given to a board of pardons. 

Other State Officers. —Other important state officers 
are: the lieutenant-governor , who presides over the 
state senate and takes the governor’s place when he is 
sick or absent from the state, and succeeds him in case 
he dies before the end of his term. The secretary of 
state , who has certain legal functions to perform. The 
treasurer , who cares for the state’s money, and pays it 
165 


out on the auditor’s demand. The auditor —sometimes 
there are a first and second auditor—who sees to the 
collection of the state’s money. The attorney-general, 
who has charge of suits brought by the state and defends 
the state against suits. The adjutant-general , who con¬ 
trols the state militia. The superintendent of public 
instruction , or commissioner of education , who directs 
the public school system. The highway commissioner , 
who has control of the state’s part in road building. The 
insurance commissioner , who examines the insurance 
companies doing business in the state. The commis¬ 
sioner of charities and correction, who inspects the 
state prisons and charitable institutions. In some states 
there are numerous other officers. 

State Departments. —The work of the state is car¬ 
ried on by departments presided over by the principal 
state officers. The number of departments varies 
greatly in different states, being very large in New York 
and small in Nevada. 

Department of Education. —This department dis¬ 
tributes state school funds to the cities and counties; 
issues teachers’ certificates; lays down general rules for 
the running of the schools; looks after the state normal 
schools; examines the workings of the public schools; 
makes recommendations for the improvement of edu¬ 
cation; assists in building schools; selects textbooks in 
some states, and performs many other functions. 

Highway Department. —A few years ago each county 
had to build its own roads without help from the state. 
At the present time the state aids the communities to 
better the roads by maintaining state highways and by 
giving money to counties for the building of improved 
166 



roads. Some of the states, particularly New York and 
Pennsylvania, have made large bond issues for road 
improvement. The highway department employs 
trained engineers who plan new roads and grade and 
straighten old roads that are being improved. The 
road-building policy of each state is in the hands of the 
highway commission, which has grown to be one of the 


Photograph by A. M. Black, Tazewell, Va. 

A Good Road 

most important departments of government. The 
United States helps the states to build roads, giving an 
amount of money in proportion to the amount spent by 
each state. The tendency is for the states to take 
almost entire charge of road building, as local road 
making is less efficient. 

Department of Health. —This department has done 
167 





a splendid work in every state. Not so many years ago 
each locality had to care for its own health conditions, 
with the result that there were terrible epidemics of 
typhoid fever and other diseases. Nowadays inspectors 
are sent out by the department of health as soon as 
smallpox, typhoid, diphtheria, hookworm, and other 
contagious and infectious diseases become serious in any 
part of the state. Efforts are also made to prevent the 
occurrence of these diseases by sending warnings and 
instructions through the mails. Examinations of sus¬ 
pected water, and other investigations, are made free 
of charge by the scientists of the health department, 
who are always at the service of the public. The great 
improvement in the public health in recent years is 
largely due to the health departments. 

Department of Agriculture. —In some states the 
department of agriculture is of great importance; in 
others it is less so. In agricultural regions it saves the 
farmers millions of dollars annually by teaching them 
the best ways of cultivating, harvesting, and marketing 
crops. In many of the states there are county agri¬ 
cultural demonstrators, whose business it is to give 
lessons in farming; and sometimes agents of the agri¬ 
cultural department are sent through the state to 
lecture on new methods of cultivation and to make 
known to farmers the discoveries of science in agri¬ 
culture. In some states the department of agriculture 
aids the farmer in fighting pests, such as scales on fruit 
trees and the boll weevil on cotton. 

The General Assembly or Legislature. —The law¬ 
making body of the state meets in the capitol building 
in the state capital at stated periods, every year or 
168 


every two years. The lower house is generally called 
the house of delegates or representatives; the upper 
house is always called the senate. The former has a 
larger representation than the senate, for the districts 
are much smaller: most counties and cities have at 
least one representative in the house of delegates. A 
number of counties usually go to make up a senatorial 
district, though sometimes, as in South Carolina, a 
single county composes a district. The first work of 
the house of delegates is to elect a speaker to preside 
over the body. It also elects clerks and sergeants-at- 
arms, as does the senate. The speaker appoints the 
various committees, and the body settles down to work. 
The senate does not elect its presiding officer, because 
the constitution names the lieutenant-governor for this 
position. This officer appoints the senate committees. 
Most of the work of legislative bodies is done through 
committees; the debates on the floor of the house are 
no longer of as much importance as formerly. Each 
member of a legislative body is a member of several 
committees. Men who have been long in the body and 
have gained influence are members of the principal com¬ 
mittees; new members are assigned to less vital com¬ 
mittees. The finance , or ways and means , committee 
is the most important committee of a legislative body, 
and the chairman of it stands next in power to the pre¬ 
siding officer. The principal committees usually are: 
finance; corporation; education; highways; agri¬ 
culture; mining; labor and commerce. 

How a Law is Made.—The following are the steps 
by which a bill becomes an act , or law: 

1. A bill may be introduced in either house, except 
169 


appropriation bills, which must be first introduced in 
the house of delegates. 

2. It must be in written form when presented by 
the member introducing it. It must also have a title, 
which is all that is required to be read by the clerk at 
the first reading. 

3. The bill is then referred to the committee which 
considers such matters as it relates to. If favored by 
the committee, it is printed and sent back to the house 
for its second reading. Many bills, however, “die in 
committee,” that is, are never sent back to the main 
body. 

4. The next step is the argument on the merits of 
the bill, pro and con , on the floor of the house. The 
bill may be, and usually is, amended—that is, changed. 
Sometimes it is so amended that it bears little likeness 
to its original form. After the amendments have been 
voted on, and either accepted or rejected, a vote is taken 
as to whether or not the bill shall pass on to the third 
reading. The roll of the body is called on this vote, as 
on most votes. 

5. If the bill passes to its third reading it is on the 
way to final passage. It is read and a vote is taken as 
to whether or not it shall pass. Most bills that get so 
far as the third reading pass. 

6. If passed by the house in which it originated, the 
bill must be sent to the other house, where it goes 
through the same course. Usually the other house 
adds new amendments before it accepts the bill. The 
newly amended bill is then sent back to the house 
where it originated. If that body accepts it, it be¬ 
comes law unless the governor vetoes it. But if 

170 


the first house declines to accept the amendments 
made by the second house, it fails to pass the bill. 
Then conference committees are appointed by the two 
houses to meet and see if an agreement can be 
reached. A compromise is usually the result. The com¬ 
promise bill is then voted on by the two houses, and, if 
accepted, it becomes an act, provided the governor does 
not veto it. If he does veto it, it goes back to the 
houses, which may or may not pass it over his veto. 
You will see from this that making a law is a long and 
difficult process. It should be so: otherwise many new 
laws would be made at every session of a legislature. 

State Courts. —The judicial branch—the courts—in¬ 
terprets and enforces the laws. The number and names 
of courts differ greatly in different states. The frame¬ 
work of the state court system is as follows: 

1. Justices’ courts in counties and police courts in cities 
for trial of small offenses. 

2. County courts. (In some states.) 

3. City courts. (Several kinds in large cities.) 

4. Circuit, or district courts, for the trial of most civil 
cases and most crimes. 

5. Supreme court, or court of appeals, to try cases 
appealed from the circuit and city courts. 

6. In New York, and one or two other states, a court of 
appeals, to hear cases appealed from the supreme court. 

In addition to these ordinary courts, there are 
special courts outside the regular judicial system. The 
most important of these is the corporation commission. 
This court has control of railroad, street railway, steam¬ 
boat and other transportation corporations; of tele¬ 
graph and telephone companies; of public and private 
banks (except national and Federal Reserve banks); of 
171 


trust and loan companies. It enforces the laws in 
regard to such corporations, or companies, and grants 
charters of incorporation to various business enter¬ 
prises. It has the power to make railroad, steamboat, 
and other public service rates, and it assesses the taxes to 
be paid by railways and other transportation companies. 

The People and the State.—You will see from this 
chapter that the government of the state is a large and 
important undertaking. We speak of the people’s gov¬ 
erning themselves, but so far we have only heard of 
state departments, legislature, and courts. What have 
the people to do with these agencies of government? 
The answer is that the people elect the governor and 
most of the other important state officers; the legis¬ 
lature; and, in some cases, the judges. Every voter 
therefore has a voice in the government of the state. 
When you grow up you will have the right to vote— 
that is, to say who shall hold the important positions 
in the state government. 

Qualifications of a Voter.—All citizens, male or 
female, twenty-one years of age, have the right to vote 
unless forbidden for special reasons, or because they 
have not fully complied with the law regulating voting. 
The voter must: 

1. Be a resident of the state—that is, he must have 
lived in the state for a certain time. Residents who are 
not citizens cannot vote. 

2. Be registered in the precinct, or voting district, 
where he lives. And he must have lived in the district 
for a certain time. 

3. In some states pay a poll tax, and pay it a certain 
time in advance of the election. 


172 


% 4. In some states be able to read and write the 
English language. In other states he must be able to 
explain a clause in the state constitution to the satis¬ 
faction of the registrars. There are also other educa¬ 
tional qualifications. 

In all states certain persons, such as lunatics and 
men convicted of crime, were long without the right to 
vote, or the hope of having the right restored. There is 
a growing tendency, however, to give criminals the 
right to vote after they leave prison. 

Political Parties. —Most voters belong to a polit¬ 
ical party. Local elections frequently lie not between 
parties but between individuals, but state elections are 
always between parties. In some states, however, as 
in the South, a single party is so strong as to have little 
opposition. In these states the regular elections are 
usually a form, and the real elections are what are 
called primaries , in which candidates offer themselves 
for nomination by a party. The person nominated is 
really elected. In other states, where there are two 
strong parties, primaries are held for both parties, or 
nominating conventions, and then the nominees of the 
parties are voted for in the regular election, which is 
the main election. The two principal parties in the 
United States are the Republican and the Democratic. 
The Republican party is usually in control of the federal 
government, but not always. President Wilson was a 
Democrat, and at various times the Democratic party 
has been in control of one or both houses of Congress. 
In the Southern states, with the exception of one or 
two, the Democratic party is always in power. In the 
North and West, the state governments are in the hands 
173 


of one and then the other of the parties. Pennsylvania 
is one of the few states that are nearly always in the 
hands of the Republicans. Some years ago there was a 
third party, the Populist, which controlled a number of 
Western states for a time. Other parties in the country 
are the Socialist and Farmer-Labor parties, which differ 
greatly from the two main parties. These latter parties 
favor the ownership of railroads and other great indus¬ 
tries by the government. 


Club Activities 

1. Make a list of the most important courts of your state and find out 
whether the judges are appointed or elected. 

2. Write to the state comptroller or auditor and request him to send 
you a report showing how much money the state spent last year. 

3. Write to the state department of education for a report showing 
how much money is spent annually on public education. 

4. Invite your representative in the legislature to make a talk before 
your classroom club on “How Laws are Made.” 

5. Answer these questions: 

How many judges compose the supreme court of your state? 
How are they chosen? 

If the governor of your state should die, who would take his 
place? 

How many members has the lower body of your state legisla¬ 
ture? The upper body? 

How often does your legislature meet? 

What are the two bodies of your legislature called? 

What is the basis of representation in each body? 

What are the committees for each body? 

How is the state highway commissioner chosen in your state? 
Write to this official for the report showing the cost and 
location of state highways. 

What are the qualifications for a voter in your state? 

6. Put on the blackboard the answers to the following questions: What 
are your state offices and who are the present officers? 


174 


CHAPTER XXVII 

SOME THINGS THE NATION DOES FOR US 

Problem: To discover ways in which the nation helps 
the people of a community. 

We have seen in our previous studies that the county, 
city, and state exercise authority over the people and 
carry on many activities for their benefit. There are 
certain things, however, that only the national govern¬ 
ment has the power to do. In Chapter XIII we con¬ 
sidered two of these activities—money-making and the 
post office. Now we shall study some additional things 
that are wholly in the hands of the United States 
government. 

Control of Immigration.—The national government 
has complete control of immigration into the United 
States. Thousands of foreigners come to our shores in 
the great steamships that leave the seaports of 
Europe and western Asia. Most of these immigrants 
land in New York harbor. There they have to go 
through a thorough examination before they are 
admitted to the United States; if the quota of immi¬ 
grants from a country has already been completed for 
the year, other newcomers from that country are sent 
back without examination. The states have nothing 
whatever to do with immigration. 

Control of Fighting Forces.—The United States 
government declares war and makes peace: the states 
have no voice in this matter. The regular army and 
175 



/ 



Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 

( 176 ) American Troops Home from France 









the navy are entirely in the control of the federal 
government; but the states maintain militia. This 
militia is nearly always an exclusively land force; only 
a few states have a naval militia. The militia is under 
the states in time of peace but comes under the federal 
government in war. The United States, in war, also 
drafts citizens, whether they wish to fight or not, and 
calls for volunteers. In war the army consists of all 
males, of certain ages, able to bear arms and not 
excused from military duty because of having families 
to support. In peace, the army is small. Most of the 
troops are stationed in the Philippine Islands, Alaska, 
and points in the southwestern part of the United 
States. The marines are largely employed in keeping 
order in the republic of Haiti, which is more or less 
under the control of the United States. 

The Army and Navy. —The regular army consists of 
men who join the service for a term of years. Recruits 
must undergo a rigid physical examination, for the 
army does not wish weaklings and men with defects. 
This is also true of the navy. It is usually a difficult 
matter to secure enough soldiers for the army and 
sailors for the navy, for, though there are many advan¬ 
tages in being in the army and navy, the pay is small 
and the opportunity of advancement not great. A 
number of soldiers have become officers in the army 
by studying in the army schools and passing the 
examinations for commissions; this is not the case in 
the navy. Most of the army officers are graduates of 
the United States Military Academy, naval officers of 
the Naval Academy. The navy must be kept strong, 
even in peace time. The tendency now, following the 
177 


Armament Conference of 1921-22, is to reduce navies 
in all the countries of the world. The American 
navy is divided into two main fleets—the Atlantic 
and the Pacific. The Panama Canal was built partly 
to enable these two fleets to unite quickly in time 
of war. 

The Military and Naval Academies. —The main¬ 
tenance of the Military Academy, at West Point, New 
York, and of the Naval Academy, at Annapolis, 
Maryland, is one of the federal government’s most 
important duties in connection with the army and 
navy. Youths seventeen years old may enter West 
Point provided they can secure an appointment from a 
Congressman and take the entrance examinations or 
make the highest standing in a competitive exami¬ 
nation. General Pershing won an appointment to West 
Point over another boy by a single question in grammar. 
His great career is the result of his making the most of 
his high school opportunities and of knowing just a 
little more than another boy. On such small things 
men’s lives often turn. The cadets at the Naval 
Academy are appointed in the same way. Both 
military and naval cadets are paid enough to cover all 
their expenses while at school and are appointed to 
places in the army and navy on graduating. 

Navigation. —The United States government con¬ 
trols navigation along the seacoasts and of the inland 
rivers of the country. Captains of ships and pilots 
must get federal licenses before they can do their work. 
There are rigid rules, laid down by the federal govern¬ 
ment for ships, such as carrying a certain number of 
lifeboats and lifebuoys for the safety of passengers and 
178 



doing certain things for the welfare of the crew. Is 
there a navigable river in your state? If so, the United 
States government controls the vessels that ply on it. 
The government spends many millions of dollars yearly 
in deepening the channel of rivers by dredging, and 
in maintaining on the seacoast lighthouses and life¬ 
saving stations for the rescue of shipwrecked people. 
During the World War the federal government built 


A Coast Guard Station 

hundreds of ships to carry food and other products 
from this country to Europe. In peace time, however, 
the United States has few merchant ships except those 
that sail from port to port along the coast. Nearly 
all the foreign commerce of the country is carried in 
European and Japanese vessels. 

Customs. —One of the most important duties of the 
United States government is to regulate the foreign 
trade of the country, as well as commerce between the 
179 







states. It may surprise you to learn that foreign goods 
may not be brought into this country free. If goods 
are shipped to the United States from England or some 
other foreign land, they are examined by officials of 
the federal government at the port where they are 
unloaded. The law requires that certain payments, 
called duties or tariff , be made on these foreign goods. 
This money goes into the United States treasury. The 
object of the tariff is to obtain money for the 
government and, also, to protect American manu¬ 
factures by putting a burden on foreign manu¬ 
factures. Not having to pay the tariff, American 
manufacturers need not produce goods at so low 
a cost as Europeans. American goods often cost 
more to make than foreign products, but because of 
the tariff they are sold as cheaply in our stores as 
European manufactures. 

Copyrights and Patents. —Another power vested 
solely in our national government is that of granting 
copyrights to persons who write books, plays, and music, 
and patents to those who invent machines and appli¬ 
ances. If an author writes a book he is given the 
exclusive right, for a certain number of years, to publish 
it, and anyone else printing the book is liable to punish¬ 
ment. The same thing is true of patents. Some great 
fortunes have been made from patents, notably that of 
Alexander Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, 
and that of Thomas Edison, the inventor of the electric 
light, the phonograph, and many other marvels. The 
Patent Office is one of the most interesting buildings in 
Washington. You must be sure to visit it when next 
you go to the national capital. Tiny models of thou- 
180 


sands of machines are kept there, and it is fascinating to 
examine them. 

The Weather Bureau. —You frequently read the 
weather forecasts in the local newspaper, especially 
when you are planning to go somewhere. You have 
learned to know that if the paper says “Fair and 
warmer tomorrow,’’ it is likely to be so, and that if the 
paper says “Cloudy, with showers , 93 the day will 
probably not be a good one. These forecasts are read 
by thousands of people for business reasons. The 
farmers wish to learn what sort of weather to expect, 
so that they will know what to do with their hay and 
other crops; the ship captain often stays in port when 
the weather forecasts tell of a storm on the coast. To 
many other people it is a matter of importance to 
know what sort of weather the day will bring forth. 
It is the business, exclusively, of the federal government 
to study the weather. Trained men at two hundred 
regular stations throughout the country observe the 
condition of the atmosphere and send in their reports 
to Washington, from which place the forecasts are 
dispatched by telegraph. 

Railroads. —The federal government has control of 
the railroad rates on railroads that run through two or 
more states: railroads that are confined to a single 
state are under the control of that state, as well as the 
rates for points within the state. In other words, if 
goods are shipped from one state to another, the 
freight rate paid on those goods is determined by the 
United States government. If goods are shipped from 
one city in a state to another city in the same state, 
the freight rate is fixed by the state corporation coin- 
181 


mission. The same thing is true of passenger fares. 
The body that makes the rates between states and has 
control of the railways generally is known as the Inter¬ 
state Commerce Commission. This board came into 
existence in 1887, because of complaints that the 
railroads were not acting fairly, and it has gradually 
been given more power by Congress until now it exer¬ 
cises a large measure of authority over the railways. 
During the World War the federal government took 
over nearly all the railway lines in the country and 
conducted them, but after the war the roads were given 
back to their owners. 

Other Functions of the Government. —The United 
States government assists the states in many things 
that are done by each state for itself. Thus the health 
work of the United States government is very im¬ 
portant. The series of experiments conducted by 
officials of the government determined that yellow fever 
is conveyed by mosquitoes and bubonic plague by rats. 
The United States health authorities are in charge in 
every port of the United States. They take care that 
no persons suffering from diseases dangerous to other 
people are allowed to land in the country; and in case 
of a threatened epidemic they may close a port entirely 
for a time. The United States Department of Agri¬ 
culture has also made many valuable discoveries. 
Indeed, the state departments of agriculture exist 
partly for the purpose of making known to the farmers 
of the individual states the discoveries of the United 
States government. The federal government owns 
large forest preserves in various parts of the country, 
on which it seeks to preserve and improve the trees, 
182 


so that the country’s supply of timber will not be soon 
exhausted. In many other ways besides these the 
federal government is at work for our welfare. 


Club Activities 

1. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of enlistment in the 
United States army or navy. 

2. Appoint a classmate to discuss the importance of the airplane as a 
branch of the military service. 

3. Give some reasons why the national government controls commerce 
on such inland waterways as the Great Lakes and the Mississippi rather 
than the different states which border on these waterways. 

4. Give reasons why an inventor should be allowed a patent. 

5. Find out all you can about the Fordney-McCumber tariff act. 

6. Tell why tariff bills are very hotly debated in Congress. 

7. Debate this question: Resolved, That the United States should 
keep up its navy to the full quota allowed by the Armament Agreement. 


183 



PART THREE 
CHAPTER XXVIII 

THE JUNIOR CITIZENS CLUB REORGANIZED 
Problem: To reorganize your Junior Citizens Club. 

Reorganizing Your Club.—This should be the best 
year of the Junior Citizens Club. You are older and 


Courtesy o£ Miss Emilie Yunker 

A School Garden 

can therefore make the meetings more interesting and 
form better plans for improving your school and com¬ 
munity. Discuss the following report of the reor- 
184 





ganization of a club like yours and then decide what 
shall be your plan of work for the year: 

Reorganization of the Civics Club 

At the first meeting of the Civics Club in Fair- 
mount School a committee on reorganization was 
appointed. The next day it made the following report: 

The officers are to be as heretofore: 

President. 

Vice President. 

Secretary. 

Treasurer. 

We suggest the following departments: 

Department of Health. 

Head of department and helpers. 

Department of Public Works. 

Head and helpers. 

Department of Thrift and Banking. 

Head and helpers. 

Library Department. 

Head and helpers. 

News Department. 

Head and helpers. 

Entertainment Department. 

Head and helpers. 

We recommend that the duties of the departments 
be as follows: 

Department of Health.—The “head doctor” and his 
assistants look at and keep records of finger nails; inspect 
shoes; ask about brushing teeth; keep the room at the 

185 


right temperature; display literature on health; and do 
various other things which improve the health of the pupils. 

Department of Public Works. —This department keeps 
the room neat. It strives for an “A” rating on the con¬ 
dition of the desks. It also looks after blackboards, vases of 
flowers, and the waste paper basket. 

Thrift Department. —For this department the head 
should be a fine banker, who will help to keep the banking 
records and percentages, who will count the money and 
supply the literature on thrift. 

Library Department. —The librarians should work out 
systems for keeping records. 

News Department. —Three pupils should look after this 
department. They should gather up materials of interest, 
visit the Chamber of Commerce and the banks, and bring 
literature which describes the city. 

The Entertainment Department. —This committee should 
plan and present several entertainments during the year, 
besides conducting the morning exercises. 

The report of the reorganization committee was 
unanimously adopted. After the election of officers, 
the president appointed the heads of the departments 
and their helpers. 

Club Activities 

1. Reorganize your club. 

2. Appoint standing committees. 

3. Write new songs, new cheers, and a class slogan. 


180 


CHAPTER XXIX 
CHOOSING A VOCATION 


Problems: (1) To study various vocations and their 
contributions to the world; and (2) to consider your life 
vocation and how to prepare for it. 

Wisdom of Early Choice. —When should you choose 
your vocation or life work? Many young people do not 
think seriously about this question until they are well on 
into a high school course and some have no definite 
plans when they enter college; but it is wise to begin 
early in life to think about this most important ques¬ 
tion. If you are going to high school, as probably you 
are, you should have at least a general idea of what 
you wish to do in life. If you expect to be a farmer, you 
will take up the study of agriculture; if you are plan¬ 
ning to go to college, you will study certain foreign 
languages; if you expect to enter the commercial field, 
there are studies that will help to equip you for this 
work. 

Every Girl Should Work. —In these times girls as 
well as boys should think about the vocations they 
expect to follow, for there is no place in the world now 
for idlers. There are about ten million women workers 
in the United States. In 1910 women were found in 
three hundred and eighty-five of the four hundred and 
twenty-eight occupations listed by the Census Bureau. 
The good citizen, whether man or woman, will do some 
useful work in the world. 


187 


Beware of “Blind Alley” Jobs. —Many young people 
accept odd jobs in vacation for the purpose of earning 
money while out of school. There is no objection to 
this; but when you complete your education be sure to 
choose a position of some promise rather than a “blind 
alley” job—that is, a job which has no future—such, 
for instance, as an elevator operator. 



A Railroad Engineer 


Main Occupations Below is a list of the main 
occupations to be followed: 

Farming Manufacturing 

Farmer. Skilled mechanic. 

Trucker. Office clerk. 

Dairyman. Mechanical engineer. 

Fruit grower. Superintendent of mills. 


188 



Professions 

Skilled Trades 

Teacher. 

Physician. 

Druggist. 

Dentist. 

Lawyer. 

Engineer. 

Minister. 

Journalist. 

Mason. 

Painter. 

Carpenter. 

Plasterer. 

Paper hanger. 

Cement worker. 
Locomotive engineer. 
Structural steel worker. 

Transportation and 

Communication 

Commerce and Finance 

Railroad employee. 
Steamship employee. 
Automobile mechanic. 
Automobile salesman. 
Telegraph operator. 
Telephone operator. 

. Taxi driver. 

Street car employee. 

Salesman. 

Business manager. 
Stenographer. 

Secretary. 

Bank employee. 

Real estate dealer. 
Insurance solicitor. 

Stock broker. 

Teaching.—It is wise to make a careful study of a 
vocation if you are thinking seriously of choosing it. 
Let us make a brief study of three occupations that 
many people pursue. First, let us look at teaching, a 
profession that is followed by more than 600,000 persons 
in the United States. It is the leading calling for 


women, at least half a million of whom are engaged in 
the work. An increasing number of men are also 
entering this profession as high school teachers, school 
superintendents, and college professors. 

Advantages and Disadvantages.—The advantages 
of teaching are: the pleasant surroundings; the high 
regard in which teachers are held; the pleasure that 
comes from contact with ambitious and studious young 
people; the opportunity for study. The disadvantages 

189 


are: the low salaries; the difficulty in securing com¬ 
fortable living quarters in some places; and the worry 
over unruly pupils. The preparation for teaching con¬ 
sists of graduation from a four-year high school and at 
least two years of special training. If you wish to 
achieve the greatest success as a teacher, you should 
take a full college course. Why not teach? You can 
render no greater service to the world than by engaging 
in this useful profession. 

Medicine. —Another occupation to which your 
attention is called is that of medicine. The surgeon 
who performs difficult operations, the army doctor who 
follows the battle line ministering to the needs of the 
wounded, the country physician who drives through 
the storm to save a life—all are true servants of 
humanity. Do you wish to be a doctor? If so, you 
must like to study and must graduate from college. 
No profession requires a longer period of preparation. 
After graduating from college you must take a four- 
year course at a medical school, usually followed by 
at least one year in hospital work. 

Stenography.— A third occupation to consider is 
that of stenography. The capable stenographer has 
every reason to be proud of her work: if she takes a 
genuine interest in the business she helps greatly to 
make it a success. The work is usually pleasant; and 
efficient stenographers have an opportunity for ad¬ 
vancement to the position of secretary to the president 
or manager. Do you expect to be a stenographer? 
If so, you are strongly advised to take a full high school 
course. There are thousands of stenographers in the 
country who will always fill minor positions because 
190 


they lack the education essential to success in this 
calling. 

Farming. —The most useful and perhaps the most 
satisfactory of all occupations is farming. The world 
looks to the farmer for the necessaries of life; he does 
vital work. Besides, life in the open air gives health 
and strength and makes the sturdiest men and women. 



Plowing 

Business. —But perhaps you are thinking of going 
into business. If so, you will need a somewhat different 
training. A four-year high school course is strongly 
advisable, for a trained mind and a good knowledge of 
mathematics and English are of great importance. 
After high school, a two years’ course in a business 
college or school of commerce will be of the utmost 
benefit. The lad who completes such a course is pre¬ 
pared to rise much faster than the boy who has to learn 
191 




business from the bottom after he goes into it. When 
you have finished your education, the next thing to do 
is to choose the branch of business that suits you best. 
This is a difficult matter. The natural tendency is to 
take the job that pays most money immediately. It 
is wiser, however, to choose the job which has the 


Scene in a Cotton Mill 

greater possibilities. The business man always builds 
for the future: the profits five or ten years from now 
are what he thinks of rather than the immediate gain. 
When you have chosen your business, stick to it. The 
man who stays in the same occupation or the same kind 
of business is more likely to succeed than the man who 
changes from one to another. You may have a hard 
102 






time in business at first; but no calling pays such a 
high rate of interest on knowledge as this, and after you 
have mastered your branch of it you will find that the 
money reward comes fast and constantly increases. 

Skilled Trades.—Maybe you are thinking of be¬ 
coming a locomotive engineer. Do so if your taste runs 
that way: it is a well-paid occupation. This trade 
demands physical strength and good nerves. A four- 
year high school course is also advisable, as an engineer 
should know something about mechanics. If you wish 
to be a mason, a carpenter, a plasterer, or a paper 
hanger, you will find a high school course beneficial. 
The reason for this is that all these trades are busi¬ 
nesses as well as trades, and a student gets business 
training in high school. Perhaps you wish to be an 
electrician. No calling has a greater future, but a high 
school course is necessary to advancement, for the 
electrician must know much about physics. In fact, 
there are no vocations in the modern world, with the 
exception of unskilled manual labor, in which education 
is not of great advantage. 

Club Activities 

1. Appoint committees to give advantages and disadvantages of 
different occupations. 

2. Invite representatives of various occupations to talk to the class on 
the possibilities and opportunities offered by their respective lines of work. 

3. Each of you may make a two-minute speech on “What I Wish to 
Do When I am Grown.” In this you should give reasons for your choice of 
a vocation. 

4. Give a two-minute talk on “How I Spend My Leisure Time.” 

5. Discuss the ways some communities help their people spend their 
leisure time wisely. 

6. Estimate how much of life is spent in recreation. 

193 


CHAPTER XXX 
OUTDOOR LIFE 


Problems: To learn (1) how outdoor life improves one 
physically; and (2) what the government has done to pro¬ 
vide national playgrounds. 

Guard Your Health.—“I cannot run because it 
makes my heart beat/’ once said a pale, undersized 
schoolboy who never took open-air exercise. This lad 
caught cold easily, and when he tried to prepare his 
home work he became tired and sleepy. How is it 
with you? Is your weight what it should be for your 
health and age? Do you enjoy running, hiking, row¬ 
ing, and group games? If you wish to be strong and 
well, you must not only keep clean, eat good food, and 
sleep with your windows open, but you must spend a 
good part of your time out of doors. 

What Boys and Girls Should Weigh.—A boy or girl 
from twelve to fourteen years of age should gain twelve 
ounces each month. If you are not gaining in weight 
at this rate, you should, perhaps, take more exercise in 
the open air. The table on page 196 shows what 
your weight ought to be in proportion to your height. 

The Olympic Games..—The ancient Greeks were a 
strong race because they spent much time under the 
open sky of their beautiful country. About seven hun¬ 
dred years before Christ they inaugurated the Olympic 
Games, to which gathered athletes from every city in 
Greece. These games were held every fourth year, and 
194 


grew to be the greatest festival of the Greek race. 
Thousands of people came to witness the events, and 
the victors were awarded the highest honors, partly 
because it was thought that the gods loved those who 
enjoyed health and strength. 

Revival of Olympic Games. —With the fall of Greece 
the Olympic Games were discontinued, but they were 



A Rowing Crew at Practice 


revived in 1896. In the ancient games none but pure- 
blooded Greeks could compete, but in the new Olympic 
Games athletes from the whole world are invited to 
enter. Our country has always sent a team, and has 
won more than its share of the contests. The last 
games for some years were held at Stockholm, Sweden, 
in 1912, and American athletes made more points than 
195 








Height and Weight Table for Boys and Girls 


Boys 

Girls 

Height. Inches 

10 Years 

11 Years 

12 Years 

13 Years 

14 Years 

15 Years 

16 Years 

Height. Inches 

10 Years 

11 Years 

12 Years 

13 Years 

14 Years 

15 Years 

16 Years 

47 

54 







47 

53 







48 

56 

57 






48 

55 

56 






49 

58 

59 






49 

57 

58 






50 

60 

61 

62 





50 

59 

60 






51 

63 

64 

65 





51 

62 

63 

64 





52 

65 

67 

68 





52 

65 

66 

67 





53 

68 

69 

70 

71 




53 

68 

68 

69 

70 




54 

71 

72 

73 

74 




54 

70 

71 

72 

73 




55 

74 

75 

76 

77 

78 



55 

73 

74 

75 

76 

77 



56 

78 

79 

80 

81 

82 



56 

77 

78 

79 

80 

81 



57 

81 

82 

83 

84 

85 

86 


57 

81 

82 

83 

84 

85 

86 


58 

84 

85 

86 

87 

88 

90 

91 

58 

85 

86 

87 

88 

89 

90 

91 

59 

87 

88 

89 

90 

92 

94 

96 

59 

89 

90 

91 

93 

94 

95 

96 

60 

91 

92 

93 

94 

97 

99 

101 

60 

... 

94 

95 

97 

99 

100 

102 

61 

. . • 

95 

97 

99 

102 

104 

106 

61 

.. . 

99 

101 

102 

104 

106 

108 

62 

. . . 

100 

102 

104 

106 

109 

111 

62 

.. . 

104 

106 

107 

109 

111 

113 

63 


105 

107 

109 

111 

114 

115 

63 

.. . 

109 

111 

112 

113 

115 

117 

64 



113 

115 

117 

118 

119 

64 



115 

117 

118 

119 

120 

65 





122 

123 

124 

65 



117 

119 

120 

122 

123 

66 




125 

126 

127 

128 

66 



119 

121 

122 

124 

126 

67 




130 

131 

132 

133 

67 




124 

126 

127 

128 

68 




134 

135 

136 

137 

68 




126 

128 

130 

132 

69 




138 

139 

140 

141 

69 




129 

131 

133 

135 

70 





142 

144 

145 

70 





134 

136 

138 

71 





147 

149 

150 

71 





138 

140 

142 

72 





152 

154 

155 

72 






145 

147 

73 





157 

159 

160 









74 





162 

164 

965 









75 






169 

170 









76 






174 

175 










196 

















































those of any other nation. They also distinguished 
themselves at the Paris games in 1920. At the Inter¬ 
national Athletic Meet for Women, held in Paris in 
1922, the United States ranked second. The world 
record for the shot put was made by Lucile Godbold, 
of South Carolina. 

Group Games. —A strange feature of the ancient 
Olympic Games was that the contests were individual 
—that is, there were no group games such as baseball and 
basket ball, but each athlete competed against the 
whole field. We cannot live to ourselves, as we have 
learned in this book, but must form ourselves into com¬ 
munities. The games of today are organized on the 
community plan. The baseball team is a community 
just as much as is the town or state, and it is by team¬ 
work that games are won. 

Advantage of Consolidated Schools. —One large ad¬ 
vantage of the consolidated school over the one-room 
country school is that the students are able to organize 
teams and compete with other schools in baseball, 
basket ball, tennis, and other games. Has your school 
a well-equipped playground for students of all ages? 
If not, your Civics Club should go to work; for nothing 
adds more to school spirit and to the health of the 
students than athletics. 

Good Sportsmanship. —The ancient Greeks would 
not permit a person who had committed a crime or who 
was irreverent to the gods to enter the Olympic Games. 
They wished every contest to be fair, and were careful 
that only honorable people competed. Occasionally we 
hear of a school which permits outsiders, or “ringers,” 
to play on its teams. This should not be allowed. 

197 


Sometimes the students of a school will jeer at the 
members of a visiting team. This is a violation of the 
laws of courtesy. Frequently when an athletic team is 
victorious, the cry is raised that the umpire gave bad 
decisions, or that the victors used unfair methods. 
Such charges are unsportsmanlike. It is a good thing 
to be a “good loser.” 



Photograph by Publishers Photo Service 

A Swimming Pool 


City Playgrounds.—Has your city well-equipped 
playgrounds, athletic fields, and swimming pools? If 
it lacks these facilities, your club should help in a cam¬ 
paign to secure them. 

Story of a Playground.—A boy was once arrested for 
playing in the streets when the city provided no play¬ 
grounds. When he grew to be an old man, he provided 
in his will that $100,000 of his estate should go to the 
198 






city for a playground. This is now in operation, and 
thousands of children are made happy and healthy 
because a good citizen realized the value of play. 

Camping. —Did you ever visit a Boy Scout camp? 
The camp visited by the writer was ten miles from the 
city. The tents and dining room were located on a high, 
forest-clad hill overlooking a beautiful pond, where the 
boys swam, fished, and went boating. Spending their 
days in all kinds of outdoor sports, they had appetites 
like wolves, and when night came they slept like logs. 
The American flag floated from a tall flag pole, and 
there were appropriate exercises when it was lowered at 
sunset. At night the boys gathered around the camp 
fire and listened to stories. Can you imagine better fun 
than such camping? 

National Parks Established. —In 1920 more than a 
million people visited the nineteen national parks of our 
country. Many of these visitors traveled in automo¬ 
biles, crossing high mountains and camping each night 
by the side of some clear stream. Over 25,000 auto¬ 
mobile parties camped in Yellowstone Park in 1920. 
Would you not like to take such a trip? Well, perhaps 
some day when you are grown you may own a car and 
spend your vacation in this way; so let us have a few 
facts about our national parks. They were established 
by Congress for the following purpose, to use the exact 
words of the act establishing them: “To conserve the 
scenery and the natural and historic objects and the 
wild life therein, and to provide for the enjoyment of 
the same in such a manner and by such means as will 
leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future 
generations.” The first national park to be established 
199 



was that of Hot Springs, Arkansas. Here are to be 
found wonderful hot springs, with curative properties, 
believed by some to be the Fountain of Youth for 
which Ponce de Leon sought. 

Other Parks. —Every school child knows about Yel¬ 
lowstone and Yosemite National Parks, but there are 
others almost as interesting. Visit the Mesa Verde in 


Copyright, E. M. Newman 

Camping in a National Park 

Colorado, and you will see the homes of the ancient 
cliff-dwellers. In the Sequoia Park of California you 
will find the great trees which are one of the wonders of 
the world. In far away Hawaii there is a park in which 
are three active volcanoes and a lake of molten lava. 
Alaska has the Mount McKinley Park, in the midst of 
which stands the highest peak of North America. 

200 



The Love of Nature.—We cannot close this chapter 
without urging boys and girls to cultivate a love for 
nature. Do you like to raise vegetables and flowers in 
your garden? Do you enjoy roaming in the fields and 
forests, studying the plants, insects, and birds? Is it 
a great pleasure for you to visit the seashore and moun¬ 
tains? The seashore, the mountains, the blue sky, and 
the birds and flowers are all yours, and add to the joy 
of living. 


Club Activities 

1. Make a list of six Good Health Rules that everybody should follow. 

2. Explain what is meant by a “good loser”; give an illustration. 

3. If you have ever been on a camping trip, tell the class about your 
experiences. 

4. Debate this question: Resolved , That such natural wonders as 
Mammoth Cave, Natural Bridge, and the Grand Canyon should be con¬ 
verted into national parks by the government. 

5. Have a contest at your next meeting to see who can name the 
longest list of birds that are to be seen in your community. 

6. Describe the most beautiful spot in your community. 


201 


CHAPTER XXXI 
AGRICULTURE AND MANUFACTURING 

Problems: (1) To study two important branches of 
industry; and (2) to learn how they have developed. 

The Greatest of All Occupations. —Do you live on a 
farm? If so, you should be proud of it, for farming is 
the greatest of all industries. There could be no cities, 
and no lawyers, doctors, teachers, bankers, or artists, 
if the farmer did not plant and harvest his crops. 
Visit a great factory and see the thousands of skilled 
mechanics busily at work: they could not con¬ 
tinue at their labor of converting the raw materials 
into finished products unless the farmer sowed and 
reaped. 

Wealth of Agriculture. —In the United States more 
than seventeen millions of people are engaged in agri¬ 
culture, and the total value of the farm crops of our 
country for a year is about ten billions of dollars. This 
represents one of our greatest sources of wealth. 

Advantages of Country Life. —In Chapter XXIX 
you were told the advantages of different callings, farm¬ 
ing included. Let us here consider some further reasons 
why country boys should decide to take up farming as 
a vocation. 

The Beauties of Nature. —The city, with its bril¬ 
liantly lighted streets, tall buildings, and spacious parks, 
has many elements of beauty, but the boy or girl who 
has never seen the loveliness that God spreads over 
202 



country lanes and meadows has missed a great deal. 
Who would want to camp on a vacant lot in the city? 
We enjoy camping because our tents are pitched by the 
forest’s edge. Perhaps a carpet of green spreads before 
us and in the distance there is a river or lake. We may 
commune with nature and study the insects, birds, 
plants, and wild flowers. The farmer lives his life 


Photograph by Publishers Photo Service 

A Wheat Field 

amid such surroundings. He loves the birds that 
visit him at the different seasons, welcomes the buds and 
flowers of springtime, and rejoices when the corn is 
shocked in the fields and the autumn leaves deck the 
trees with their wealth of colors. 

The Farmer is Independent.— This statement must 
not be taken to mean that the farmer lives to and for 
himself; for we are all members of a community and 
203 




should help each other. Nor does it mean that the 
farmer can fix the prices of his crops: the opposite is 
usually true. The farmer is independent, however, in 
the sense that he plans and carries on his own work. 
In a large factory each worker has his work planned for 
him. He simply pulls a lever and the machine smooths 


Old-Time Harvesting 

the piece of iron or fashions the wood according to the 
pattern. Such work becomes monotonous and irksome. 
But the farmer has a new problem to meet each day, 
and matches his mind against blight, drought, and frost. 
He is also independent in the sense that he usually does 
not have to worry about his daily bread. Even if the 
204 




crops are poor, he still has food to eat and a shelter for 
his family. 

Fanning is Profitable.— Many boys hesitate to be¬ 
come farmers because they think that other vocations 
give larger returns in money. It is true that no farmer 
can accumulate such a fortune as Carnegie or Wool- 
worth had, but he can make a better living than the 
average city worker. There was a time when the farmer 
worked too hard, and was so weary at night that he 
did not care much for reading or recreation. In those 
days farming was an unprofitable occupation, but with 
improved machinery and better methods of cultivation 
agriculture offers the industrious man an opportunity 
for a good living without so much drudgery. 

How to Improve Farm Life. —Although farming has 
many advantages, there are ways in which the life of 
the farmer may be improved. 

1. The farmer should strive to increase production. 
The farmers of European countries raise thirty-five 
bushels of wheat to the acre, while our average is only 
twenty-nine bushels. They raise one hundred and 
ninety-six bushels of potatoes to the acre, and we less 
than a hundred. When you study agriculture in your 
high school course, you will learn about crop rotation, 
the proper use of fertilizers, and improved farm ma¬ 
chinery as the means of making land give larger returns. 
You will also learn about the work of our agricultural 
colleges and experiment stations in developing new 
species of grains and vegetables that resist plant dis¬ 
ease and give larger yields than the old plants of our 
grandfathers. You will learn that the manner of pre¬ 
paring the seed bed is important. Deep plowing makes 
205 


the soil give out its full fertility; shallow plowing results 
in a small yield. A well-worked surface helps to hold 
the moisture for the plants instead of letting it run off. 
The kind of seed sown makes a great deal of difference. 
It is as expensive to sow poor seed and cultivate the 
plants growing from it as to use good seed and cultivate 
good plants. The modern farmer studies seed with 
great care, and decides on the kind best adapted to his 
soil. After the planting, the crop must be carefully 
worked until harvest. If scientific methods are used, 
the increase in yield will be astonishing. 

2. Better business methods should be employed by 
the farmer. Merchants employ bookkeepers to keep 
the account of their purchases, sales, and expenses. In 
factories trained men study the costs of each article 
made. Many farmers keep no records of the cost of 
milk produced, eggs laid, and crops raised. Another 
failure of the farmer to use business methods consists 
in permitting waste. He fails to protect expensive 
machinery from the weather, and often lets rats and 
plant disease destroy his crops. Each year thousands 
of cattle, sheep, hogs, and other animals die because 
farmers do not take necessary steps to keep disease 
from spreading among them. In other ways the farmer 
fails to employ the system that makes manufacturing 
and commerce profitable. 

3. The farmer needs education. If you expect to 
follow this calling, you should have a high school edu¬ 
cation at least. The educated farmer uses business 
methods on his farm and increases production. It has 
been found that farmers with a college education make 
greater profits than those with a high school training, 

206 



and that the latter make twice as much as do farmers 
who have had only a “reading and writing” education. 

4. Farm life must be made more attractive for 
women. At times the farm is a very dull place for the 
housekeeper. There is a dreary round of work; while 
the farmer is out on his improved sulky plow, she is 
washing clothes with an old-fashioned washing machine 
instead of with an electric one. The farmhouse should 


Modern Harvesting 

be equipped with a furnace, electric lights, running 
water, and every modern convenience. There should 
be magazines, musical instruments, and a telephone 
for the young people, and if possible a car for the 
family. If all farmhouses were made attractive, a 
larger number of girls would wish to become farmers’ 
wives. 

Importance of Manufacturing. —The first farmer 
scratched the soil with a sharp stick. He did not have 
207 







Photograph by Underwood and Underwood 

Structural Iron Workers ( 208 ) 





























even a hoe or spade. Needless to say, he was a poor 
farmer. All the implements that help the farmer, 
such as the plow, reaper, and threshing machine, 
are made in factories. To understand how necessary 
factories are, you have only to make an inspection of 
your school. The stove or furnace was made in a 
factory. The same thing is true of the iron girders 
supporting the floors, the doors, the windows, the 
desks, and the roofing. In fact, we could not get 
along without the thousands of factories in which 
are made the numberless conveniences of life. In 1914 
over ten million people were engaged in the manufac¬ 
turing industries of the United States, and the total 
value of manufactured products was over twenty-four 
billion dollars. 

Early Stages of Manufacturing. —Three hundred 
years ago, when our country was first being settled, 
there were no factories. The women made cloth, soap, 
candles in the house. Shoes were made in the shop of 
the shoemaker instead of in factories. Ironwork was 
made by blacksmiths. In those days people were happy, 
perhaps, but they were not so happy as people are today. 
We live in steam- or furnace-heated houses, ride in 
street cars or automobiles, and have scores of conveni¬ 
ences unknown to our great-grandfathers. 

The Age of Steam and Steel. —The invention of the 
steam engine by James Watt in 1769 was probably the 
greatest discovery of the ages. It made the locomotive 
possible and brought about the age of railways. With 
the railroad came the spread of factories, which before 
that time could only be built on swift streams. As 
factories sprang up, great cities flourished. The dis- 
209 


covery of the use of coal increased the manufacture 
of iron and steel a hundredfold. Thus our modern 
mechanical civilization arose. 

A Modern Factory.—Let us pay an imaginary visit 
to a large shoe factory. We go to Brockton, Massa¬ 
chusetts, and spend the night at the leading hotel. We 
get an early breakfast the following morning because 
we wish to reach the factory in time to see the workers 



Picking Cotton 

arrive. We are at the great building at 6.50 a.M. 
Hundreds of people are filing through the main entrance, 
and among them are many women and scores of boys 
just past the compulsory school attendance age. The 
whistle blows, and there immediately begin the hum 
and pounding of numbers of machines. 

Division of Labor.—An interesting matter to be 
noted in the factory is what is called the division of 
210 





labor. One machine cuts shoe soles, another makes 
heels, a third punches eyelets in the uppers, while still 
another sews the parts of the shoe together. By 
dividing the labor into small tasks, each of which is 
done by skilled workmen, thousands of shoes can be 
turned out daily. As we watch the hundreds of workers 
running their machines, we see how necessary labor is. 
Probably the workers in the factory belong to a labor 
union or unions. If they desire higher wages or shorter 
hours, a committee of the union waits on the manager 
of the factory and lays before him their grievances. 
Sometimes the manager, as the representative of the 
owners, grants the request of the workers. If the 
demands are refused, the workers may decide to strike — 
that is, to quit work in an effort to compel the factory 
owners to grant the requests. When strikes began in 
this country, they were usually accompanied by acts 
of violence on the part of the strikers. In recent years, 
however, strikes have been more peaceful. Frequently 
they are settled without resort to violence. 

Capital Necessary. —One thing that impresses us 
about a factory is that it must take hundreds of thou¬ 
sands of dollars to build it and to purchase the ma¬ 
chinery. Money is also needed to buy materials and to 
pay workmen before the manufactured products are 
sold. Where does this money come from? It is fur¬ 
nished by the stockholders, who invest their savings 
in the factory. Such money is called the capital of 
the business, and the persons who contribute it are 
capitalists. It is well to remember that no factory, 
store, or other enterprise can be carried on without 
capital. 


£11 


Club Activities 


1. Answer these questions: 

> Why do so many people leave the country for the city? 

What means may be employed to keep them on the farm? 
What are the advantages of a trade union? 

What is meant by the “union label”? 

2. Debate the following question: Resolved, That farming is more 
important than manufacturing. 

3. Appoint a classmate to read a paper on “Modern Conveniences in 
the Farm Home.” 

4. Appoint a committee to visit a factory and report on what they see. 

5. Find the average yield per acre of all the crops in your section. 

6. Discuss ways of increasing crop production. 


212 


CHAPTER XXXII 
TRANSPORTATION AND COMMUNICATION 


Problems: (1) To study means of transportation and 
communication; and (2) to trace their development. 

National Growth.—One hundred years ago there 
were no railroads. The people who lived in the back 
country away from waterways had to haul their goods 
many miles over bad roads. There were few cities; 
the states west of the Appalachian highland were 
sparsely peopled; the western plains were practically 
unsettled, and the land beyond the Rocky Mountains 
was a lonely desert. In older parts of the country the 
roads connecting villages and cities were unimproved 
and almost impossible of travel in winter. Telephone 
and telegraph lines did not exist; newspapers were 
poor. Each little community lived to itself. 

How the Country Became Great.—If you were 
asked to explain how our nation grew in a hundred 
years from a sparsely settled country east of the Missis¬ 
sippi to the greatest nation in the world, extending 
from ocean to ocean and having more than a hundred 
million people, you might truthfully answer by naming 
the following inventions: 

Steamships. Automobiles. 


Modern roads. 

Farming machinery. 
Telegraphs and telephones. 


Canals. 
Railroads. 
Trolley lines. 


These wonderful inventions have broken up the iso- 


213 























lation of the small communities in which our great¬ 
grandfathers lived and made the United States one 
vast community or neighborhood. You can now 
travel from New York to San Francisco in five days, or 
in less time than it took George Washington to go from 
Mount Vernon to New York when he was inaugurated 
as our first President. 

First Methods of Transportation. —The history of 
transportation is the story of human development. 
The first burdens were borne on the backs of men. 
Then animals—horses, donkeys, and oxen—were used 
for a long period before roads were built: the loads 
were fastened to the backs of the animals. When our 
ancestors on the American frontier had to go back to 
primitive ways of living, because of the absence of 
roads and other devices of civilization, they carried 
goods on pack-horses: it was in this way that furs and 
other valuable articles first crossed the Appalachian 
Mountains. In Asia and Europe, at a remote period, 
roads were built, and wagons were used for carrying 
freight and people. In the northern American colonies 
at the time of the Revolution there were some good 
roads. 

Water Transportation. —Transportation by water is 
much easier than by road, and for this reason men, at a 
very early time, began to navigate rivers and the sea 
along the coast. For many centuries, however, ships 
were unsuited for long voyages or rough seas: it was 
not until the Middle Ages that the art of sailing vessels 
was really learned and it was not until the discovery 
of the compass that voyages of months, such as Colum¬ 
bus’s, became possible. After that time, ships pene- 
215 


trated to every part of the globe. Yet transportation 
by sailing vessels, like transportation on land by wagons, 
was slow: it took our ancestors who crossed the Atlantic 
from Europe to America about three months to make 
the voyage now accomplished in a week. What the 
world needed and demanded, after the settlement of 
America, was a quicker method of transportation and 



Photograph by Publishers Photo Service 

A Sailing Ship 


communication, and, since the demand existed, it was 
met. 

Improved Transportation. —At the close of the 
eighteenth century land transportation was much the 
same as it had been for a thousand years. But with 
the establishment of the factory system, in the last 
years of that century, and the progress of invention, 
improvements quickly came. The old dirt roads of 
216 










England began to give way to macadamized highways, 
good in all weathers. Canals were dug in England to 
connect rivers, so that goods could be shipped by water 
for long distances. The macadamized road and the 
canal were improvements, but they were not sufficiently 
rapid means of transportation to suit vast countries 
such as America. The demand for a speedier method 
quickened; and finally George Stephenson adapted 
the steam engine, invented by James Watt, to hauling 
loads, and so we had the first locomotive. Railroads 
were built in England and the United States, and 
speedy land transportation became a fact. 

The Steamship. —About the same time steam was 
applied to water transportation. The two inventors of 
the steamship, John Fitch and James Rumsey, failed 
because they could not obtain sufficient capital to 
carry out their plans. In 1807 a steamboat built by 
Robert Fulton ascended the Hudson River to Albany. 
This showed the world the possibilities of the new 
system of navigation. By 1812 steamboats were 
running on the Western rivers, and in 1819 the first 
steamship that ever crossed the sea sailed from Savan¬ 
nah to Liverpool. By the middle of the nineteenth 
century, steamers traversed every ocean and the time 
required for voyaging from Europe to America had 
been cut in half. 

Trolleys and Automobiles. —What the railroads did 
for long distance transportation, trolley lines have 
done for local service. Every city in the country has 
its trolley lines, which transport passengers rapidly 
for low fares and sometimes carry light‘freight. But 
another kind of transportation was demanded by the 
217 


modern world and that was rapid private transporta¬ 
tion. This need was supplied by the invention of the 
automobile in the last years of the nineteenth century. 
The automobile gives one or more persons a means of 
traveling at railroad speed. It has somewhat lessened 
the value of railways for short distance transportation 
and has caused such a demand for good roads that 



Photograph by Underwood and Underwood 


Electric Motor and Train 


every state in the United States is now constructing 
improved highways. 

The Railroads.—Nothing has contributed so largely 
to the growth of our great cities and the development 
of the western part of our country as railroads. The 
first permanent railroad in the United States was built 
in 1828. It was only twenty miles long and is now a 
218 





part of the Baltimore and Ohio system. Many people 
objected to the building of railroads. Here are some 
of the arguments they advanced: 

Railroads will scare the horses to death. 

The noise of the engine will stop hens from laying and 
cows from giving milk. 

Sparks from the engine will set fire to fields, barns, and 
dwelling houses. 

Teamsters and other persons employed in the hauling 
business will be thrown out of employment. 

People will travel too much, to the neglect of their 
business. 

It will cost too much money to build railroads. 

None of these objections proved true, and railroads 
slowly spread over the country. A railway entered 
Chicago from the east in 1852; a few years later the 
Mississippi River was reached, and last of all came a 
transcontinental system, the Union Pacific railroad. 
All along the line of this railway, farm lands were 
opened to homeseekers and prosperous towns and 
cities sprang up. 

If Railroads Were to Stop Running.— Railroads are 
as essential to the life and prosperity of a modern 
nation as the circulation of blood is to the human 
body. Imagine what would happen if the railroads 
stopped running! In the farming sections crops would 
rot in the fields for lack of means to get them to market. 
A great city such as New York would be without milk, 
food, coal, all raw materials. In a few weeks the people 
would be starving and freezing, business would be 
dead, and the city would be one great desolation. 

Cost of Railroads. —It takes an enormous sum of 
money to run the railroads. Many thousands of 
219 


employees have to be paid, new engines and coaches 
must be purchased, and the tracks and roadbed are 
kept in good repair so that the lives of passengers may 
be safe. Where does this money come from? It comes 
from every family in the United States. The railroad 
must be paid for transporting all the coal used in your 
home, most of the food you get from your grocer and 
butcher, and nearly everything else that you buy in 
the stores. 

Interstate Commerce Commission. —Who deter¬ 
mines the passenger fares and freight rates of rail¬ 
roads? Should each railroad be allowed to charge what 
it wishes or should the government decide upon the 
rates? The former was the system for many years; 
the latter plan is now employed. The Interstate 
Commerce Commission in Washington fixes the rates, 
so that the railroads may make a fair profit for the 
stockholders while at the same time the cost of living 
will be kept down. Each state has a railroad or cor¬ 
poration commission to regulate short lines operating 
wholly within the state. The national government 
alone has the right to regulate interstate commerce— 
that is, railroads and steamship lines carrying goods 
from one state to another. 

Government Ownership. —Should the government 
own and manage the railroads or should they be run 
by private corporations under government supervision? 
In Europe many of the railroads are under government 
ownership, and our government took control of the 
railways during the World War. There are many 
arguments for and against government ownership or 
management. At the present time the majority of 
220 


people in the United States believe in the private 
ownership and management of railroads under strict 
governmental supervision. 

Rapid Transit in Cities.—Did you ever stop to 
consider how the street-car system of your city affects 
the happiness and well-being of the people? If you 
have a good system, with enough cars to carry the 
passengers in comfort, the people living in the suburbs 
travel rapidly to and from the business section. If 
the service is poor, they are delayed. The great city 
of New York has one of the best rapid-transit systems 
in the world. Millions of people are transported daily 
on surface cars, on elevated trains built high above the 
streets, and in subways. New York’s subways may 
well be considered one of the wonders of the world. 
You enter a station, pass down a flight of stairs, and 
find yourself some twenty feet below the surface of 
the street. Here are four tracks, two for local and two 
for express trains. You board an express train, say, 
near Grant’s Tomb on Riverside Drive, and in a few 
minutes emerge from the subway in Brooklyn, having 
gone under East River through a great tube that is a 
part of the subway. Work was begun on the subway 
in 1900 . At the present time there are about seventy 
miles of this wonderful system, which was constructed 
at a cost of $ 400 , 000 , 000 . 

Street Railway Franchise.—Your street-car system 
operates under a franchise granted by the city for a 
certain term of years. This franchise sets forth what 
streets are to be used by the car company, the fare to 
be charged, and the schedule on which cars are to be 
run. If your street-car service is bad, the city officials 
221 


should see that improvements are made, for a city can 
hardly prosper without a rapid-transit system giving 
all sections good transportation facilities. 

Good Roads.—The good citizen belipves in good 
roads and is willing to pay for them. Every school 
child in America should be a good roads “booster,” 
as good roads and advancing civilization go hand in 
hand. If you know people opposed to road improve- 



Modern Road Building 


ment, here are some arguments you may present to 
them: 

1. Good roads help the schools. In counties which 
have good roads, the one-room school is giving way to 
consolidated schools, because children are able to travel 
longer distances. School attendance is also much 
better, because parents do not keep their children at 
home on account of muddy roads. 

222 




2. Good roads make life more pleasant for every¬ 
body. When the roads are hard and smooth, people 
visit each other with ease, attend church and school 
entertainments, and even go to distant towns without 
fear of being stuck in the mud. 

3. Good roads help the farmer in his business. 
Heavy loads can be hauled over improved highways 
and more trips can be made in a day. To illustrate— 
one farmer living six miles from the railroad had to 
haul his grain to the station. On a bad road a truck 
could not be used, and his team made only two trips a 
day, carrying on each load a dozen bags of corn. When 
the road was improved, the farmer purchased a truck 
that made four trips a day, carrying each time twenty- 
four bags of grain. You may easily see what a saving 
this was to the farmer. Good roads increase the value 
of land. There are many cases where farms located on 
unimproved roads were sold at prices ranging from 
$10.00 to $20.00 an acre. These same farms brought 
from $75.00 to $100.00 an acre after the roads had been 
improved. 

Road-Working Systems.—What is the best system 
for working the roads of a district or county? Until 
recent years there was no system. The road overseer 
would occasionally call out all able-bodied citizens to 
work the roads. The small sums of money voted for 
highways were spent in temporary repairs which the 
next hard rain would destroy. In recent years both 
the state and national governments have adopted the 
policy of helping local communities to build roads. 
This is a good system, because roads are then built 
under the direction of the best engineers, who see that 
223 


the proper grading is observed and the proper materials 
used in the construction of roads receiving state or 
national aid. Road building is at present largely in 
the hands of the state highway commissions, which 
work rapidly and efficiently. 

The Automobile. —The automobile has been one of 
the most important factors in the good roads move¬ 
ment; for the owner of a car or truck is always an 
advocate of improved highways. Only thirty-seven 



Photograph by Publishers Photo Service 


Transportation—Airship and Automobile 

hundred automobiles were manufactured in the United 
States in 1899; in 1920 the output was nearly two 
million. There are now nearly eight and a half million 
passenger cars and one million trucks in use in our 
country. One third of the cars are owned by farmers. 

The Airplane. —Air navigation bids fair to rival 
land travel in the near future. It has not been many 
years since two American inventors, the Wright 
brothers, of Ohio, made the first successful heavier-than- 
224 





air flying machine, driven by a gasoline engine. Since 
that time flying has developed to a high degree, and at 
present mail, passengers, and even light freight are 
carried by airplanes and balloons. More and more 
people are learning aviation, and it will not be long 
before airplanes are in common use. Their speed and 
their comparative freedom from collisions—collisions 
are the main drawback to automobiles—offer great 
advantages. It seems probable that traveling in air¬ 
planes at a hundred miles an hour will soon be a 
commonplace matter. 

Quick Communication. —The problem of rapid 
transportation was solved by railroads and steamships. 
These inventions also quickened communication, which 
for centuries was very slow. The Americans and 
British fought the battle of New Orleans on January 8, 
1815, because there was no other means than sailing 
vessels of carrying the news to the United States that 
peace had been signed at Ghent, in Belgium, on 
Christmas Eve of 1814. A hundred years ago it took 
days for letters and newspapers to come from Boston 
to Washington. Railroads and steamships greatly 
reduced the time of communication. 

Telegraphs and Telephones.—But some still speed¬ 
ier means of communication was called for: people 
were not willing to wait for news to be brought by 
trains. This demand led to the discovery of the electric 
telegraph by Samuel Morse. After years of effort, 
Congress gave him a small grant of money to establish 
a telegraph line between Baltimore and Washington— 
the first telegraph line in the world. It was com¬ 
pleted in 1844 just about the time that the national 
225 



convention of the Democratic party met in Baltimore. 
When James K. Polk was nominated for President, 
the news flashed over the wires to Washington, where 
the people learned of the event a few minutes after 
it occurred. This introduced the telegraph to the 
notice of the world. For many years, however, there 


Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 

Telephoning from a Moving Train 

was no telegraph across the ocean. Cyrus W. Field 
long worked to lay a cable containing wires between 
England and America and succeeded at length in 
1868. Soon the whole world was connected by tele¬ 
graph. Communication by voice was then desired. 
This was brought about by Alexander Graham Bell, 
who showed the telephone as a new invention at the 
226 






Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia in 1876. For 
the new system of wireless telegraphy we are indebted 
to Marconi. 

The Radiophone.-—The latest means of communi¬ 
cation is the radiophone, which is a kind of wireless 
telephone system. The radio machines catch sound 
waves and reproduce them: thus by means of .the 
radiophone a concert in New York may be heard a 
thousand miles away as clearly as by the auditors in 
the hall. The possibilities of the radiophone are 
limitless, and we may expect in the next few years to 
talk across the entire breadth of the United States 
from any place where we happen to be—at home, on 
trains, or elsewhere. Indeed, we may well wonder 
where invention will stop, what new marvels of trans¬ 
portation and communication the next decade or two 
will bring forth. The world seems on the threshold 
of yet greater discoveries than any of the past. 

Club Activities 

1. Write a paper on “How Our Street Car System Can be Improved.” 

2. Answer these questions: 

Should a city help to build good roads in the country surround¬ 
ing it? Why? 

Who made the following inventions: the telegraph; the tele¬ 
phone; wireless telegraphy? 

Which is more important, the airplane or wireless telegraphy? 

3. Debate the following question: Resolved, That railroads have 
helped to develop our country more than any other invention. 

4. Mention the ways in which the state is helping to improve the roads 
of your community. 


227 


CHAPTER XXXIII 
WHERE OUR LIBERTY CAME FROM 

Problems: (1) To study the development of English lib¬ 
erty; and (2) to trace its influence on the government of 
our country. 

England and America.—The United States is now 
the greatest nation in the world. It has not always 
been so; in fact, it has not always been a nation at all. 
For more than a hundred and fifty years America 
belonged to England and owed allegiance to the 
king of England. But because the Americans held 
certain ideas of liberty, handed down to them from 
their fathers, they turned against the king when 
he sought to rule as a tyrant and won their inde¬ 
pendence. 

The London Charter. —Where did these ideas of 
liberty come from? They were the result of the long 
growth of the English people. England was con¬ 
quered in the year 1066 by William, Duke of the 
Normans. The Normans were the descendants of 
Danish sea robbers who had settled in northern France 
a century before. There they learned Christianity and 
the French language and customs. Crossing the 
English Channel in 1066, they gave battle to the 
English, who were mainly the descendants of German 
tribes that had settled in England some centuries 
earlier. The battle of Hastings was won by the Nor¬ 
mans, and the English king was killed, but England 
228 


was not entirely subdued. Then it was that the city 
of London, instead of resisting William, invited him to 
enter it as king. William, in return, gave the people of 
London a charter granting them certain privileges. 
William’s younger son, Henry I, when he became 
king, issued a charter to the whole people of England 
giving them a few rights. This was a great advance 
in liberty, for in those days the body of the people 
nowhere in the world had many rights. 

Magna Carta.—William’s descendants continued to 
reign. One of them, Richard the Lion-Hearted, needing 
money and finding that he could obtain it by selling 
charters such as that of Henry I, granted many of 
them. These charters, promising certain towns and 
workers in certain callings special protection, caused 
the people to murmur when the royal government, in 
later times, wrung huge taxes from them by force and 
otherwise violated the charters. When Richard died 
his brother John, a bad man, came to the throne. 
King John paid no attention to the charters granted by 
Henry I and Richard I. He was a brutal tyrant, 
robbing people of their money and shutting them up 
in dungeons to die. Finally the nobles, weary of his 
misrule, rose against him and forced him, in 1215, to 
sign the Magna Carta, or Great Charter. This docu¬ 
ment promised that no taxes were to be laid without 
the consent of the king’s Great Council; that justice 
was not to be sold in the courts or delayed; that people 
accused of crime were to be punished in accordance with 
the laws, not the king’s will; and that people were not 
to be left in prison without trial but were to be tried by 
juries soon after arrest. This was one of the most 


229 


important steps ever taken in the progress of human 
liberty. 

The English Parliament.—King John’s son, when he 
grew up, became as bad a tyrant as his father had 
been. The nobles rose against him, as they had against 
King John. One of them, Simon de Montfort, became 
the ruler of England in the king’s place. Montfort 
enlarged the Great Council, which before had con¬ 
sisted only of nobles and clergy, by adding to it two 
men chosen from every town in England and two men 
from every county. Thus was formed the English 
Parliament, the greatest legislative body the world 
has ever seen. Later Parliament was divided into two 
chambers: the House of Lords, made up of nobles and 
bishops, and the House of Commons, composed of men 
selected by the towns and counties. Parliament came 
to be the sole power that levied taxes. The king’s 
wishes as to levying taxes were usually followed, but 
only Parliament had the right to tax Englishmen. 
Members of the House of Commons were elected by 
the votes of house owners. 

Parliament and King.—The old line of English 
kings died out and the king of Scotland, James VI, 
came to the English throne as James I. James I 
paid little attention to Parliament, which he disliked. 
His son, Charles I, attempted to levy taxes without 
the consent of Parliament. This brought on a war 
in which Parliament was victorious. Charles I lost 
his life, and for a time there was no king in England. 
Later Charles’s son, Charles II, became king and was 
succeeded by his brother, James II. James II, like 
his father, sought to rule without regard to the laws 
230 


and customs of England and was driven from the 
throne in the Revolution of 1688. By this time certain 
things had become fixed in men’s minds as “the rights 
of Englishmen.” These were the sole right of Parlia¬ 
ment to levy taxes; the right of men accused of crime 
to be tried where the crime was committed, by a jury, 
and promptly; the right of men to live in their homes 
undisturbed by soldiers, who were kept in private 
houses everywhere else in Europe. The Bill of Rights 
of 1689 confirmed these rights and added others. 

The English Colonies.—Meanwhile the English 
colonies had come into being and had grown into 
prosperous communities. The first colony was Vir¬ 
ginia, settled in 1607; the next Massachusetts, planted 
in 1620. The right of the colonists to tax themselves 
through their representatives, following the example 
of the English Parliament, was asserted when, in 1619, 
the first representative body in America met at James¬ 
town, in Virginia. Two men were selected from each 
“hundred,” or district, to sit in this tiny Parliament. 
Afterward, the New England colonies and the other 
English colonies set up assemblies, which levied taxes 
on the people of the colonies just as Parliament did on 
the inhabitants of Great Britain. The settlers enjoyed 
the other rights of Englishmen, such as trial by jury. 

George III.—Still another English king, George III, 
attempted to rule as absolute monarch. George was 
able to make himself master of Parliament by bribery, 
and he then proposed to tax the American colonies. At 
this time, in 1765, England had just come out of a long 
and expensive war with France which had ended in the 
gain of Canada. England was greatly in need of 
231 


money and the king made up his mind to tax the 
colonies for the upkeep of the army in America. Par¬ 
liament, at the king’s instance, claimed the right to 
tax the colonies, since they were a part of the British 
empire. The Americans denied the right of Parliament 
to tax them because they were not represented in it: 
their own colonial assemblies took the place of Parlia¬ 
ment with them. When Parliament levied taxes on the 
American colonies, the colonials refused to pay them. 
When Parliament passed other laws quartering troops 
in the homes of New England people and ordering men 
accused of crimes to be sent away from New England 
for trial, the Americans claimed that their rights as 
Englishmen were violated. They rose in arms, and the 
Revolutionary War began in 1775. 

The United States. —The thirteen English colonies 
then formed a league, known as the United Colonies. 
Each colony had its separate government, but there 
was a common representative body called Congress. 
Each colony had an equal vote in Congress. This early 
Congress, the Continental Congress, raised an army 
and appointed George Washington commander-in¬ 
chief. Afterward it made an alliance with France and 
directed the war until 1781. In 1776 it issued the 
famous Declaration of Independence, announcing 
that the United Colonies had become the United 
States of America, a league of republics, and giv¬ 
ing the reasons for separation from England. But 
the power of the Continental Congress rested solely 
on the consent of the colonies; it had no definite 
authority. Each colony, by the Declaration of Inde¬ 
pendence, was an independent republic; it taxed itself 
232 


and gave what money it saw fit to the Continental 
Congress. This was a poor plan, for so little money 
came from the states that the American army almost 
broke up at Valley Forge for lack of food and clothing. 

Articles of Confederation. —This unsatisfactory 
state of affairs led to the formation, in 1781, of a govern¬ 
ment under a plan which is known as the Articles of 
Confederation. From 1781 to 1789 this was the govern¬ 
ment of the United States. It proved unsatisfactory. 
There was no President or other head—that is, no exec¬ 
utive department. Congress could not levy taxes or 
regulate commerce; consequently, the legislative de¬ 
partment had little power; there were no courts or 
judicial department. Such a government was wholly 
wanting in force. At the instance of James Madison, of 
Virginia, and several other noted men, a convention 
of delegates from the states met at Philadelphia in 1787 
to alter the Articles of Confederation. The con¬ 
vention ended by framing a new plan of government, 
the Constitution of the United States. We shall con¬ 
sider this in the following chapter. 

Club Activities 

1. Tell in as few words as possible how our liberty was handed down to 
us from England. 

2. Answer these questions: 

On what principle did the colonists object to being taxed by 
the British Parliament? 

What other principles established in England were violated by 
measures imposed by Parliament upon the colonists? 

3. Appoint a committee to give a list of America’s reasons for separat¬ 
ing from England. 

4. Give two well-known instances in Patrick Henry’s life which show 
American feeling at the time we fought for liberty. Perhaps some of you 
can give one of his speeches. 


233 





mSmSSSi 













/ 


Photograph from Underwood and Underwood 

(£34) Signing the Declaration of Independence 





















CHAPTER XXXIV 

THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 


Problems: (1) To study the Constitution; and (2) to 
learn the powers of the federal government. * 

What the Constitution Is.—The Constitution is the 
basis, the foundation, of the government of the United 
States as it has existed from 1789 to the present day. 
Read it; it is brief. 1 By reading it, you will learn the 
duties of the President, the powers of Congress, the 
jurisdiction of the federal courts. From it you will 
learn the scope of the national government in com¬ 
parison with that of the individual states. The Con¬ 
stitution is the supreme law of the land. No state may 
pass any law that is contrary to the Constitution. 
Every officer of the United States from the President 
down takes an oath to observe it. 

The Convention. —The thirteen original states, with 
the single exception of Rhode Island, sent their wisest 
leaders to the convention, which met, in 1787, in Inde¬ 
pendence Hall, Philadelphia, where the Declaration of 
Independence had been signed eleven years before. 
Among the delegates were George Washington, James 
Madison, Benjamin Franklin, Alexander Hamilton, 
George Mason, James Wilson, Robert Morris, Charles 
C. Pinckney, Roger Sherman, and other famous persons. 
These men met almost daily from May 25 to September 
17, 1787. Although the Constitution is short and easy 

1 See page 314. 

285 


to read, you will see that it took nearly five months to 
complete it. Opinion was greatly divided, and some¬ 
times the debates became stormy. Indeed, it is prob¬ 
able that the convention would have broken up in 
failure but for George Washington, who was chairman, 
and Benjamin Franklin, who acted as peacemaker in 
bringing together the divided delegates. 

Differences in the Convention.—The main disagree¬ 
ment between the members of the convention arose over 
the question of the amount of power to be given the 
new government. Alexander Hamilton, of New York, 
wished to have a strong central government, like that 
of England, together with a lessening of the powers of 
the state governments. Some delegates, on the other 
hand, did not desire to see the states weakened at all. 
Other delegates wished to have three Presidents instead 
of one. Some thought that the President should be 
elected for life instead of for four years. Others con¬ 
tended that he should be elected by the whole people, 
while still others thought that it would be best for him 
to be appointed by Congress. A section of the conven¬ 
tion held that Congress should consist of only one body. 
The delegates from the small states argued that all 
states should have the same power in Congress; the 
large states held that representation should be accord¬ 
ing to population. Slavery caused discussion. Some 
of the northern delegates wished to stop the bringing in 
of slaves from Africa; delegates from the South and 
from New England argued that each state should be 
allowed to decide the question for itself. Another 
problem was that of foreign commerce. A number of 
delegates contended that the states should be left the 
236 


power to regulate foreign trade to suit themselves; 
others held that foreign commerce should be wholly 
in the hands of Congress. 

What Was Done.—In most cases these differences 
were compromised. Much power was given to the 
federal government, but much was left to the states. 
It was decided to have but one President, elected for 
four years, but eligible for reelection. He was neither 
to be elected by the people nor appointed by Congress, 
but to be elected by electors chosen in turn by the 
people of each state—the same number of electors as 
Congressmen. Congress was organized in two bodies: 
representation in the upper house, the Senate, was to 
be equal for all states—two Senators for each; repre¬ 
sentation in the lower body, the House of Representa¬ 
tives, was by population. Foreign commerce was to 
be regulated by Congress: the states were to give up 
all control of it. The federal government was to have 
the sole power to make treaties with foreign countries 
and control of the army and navy. 

Adoption of the Constitution.—The next step was to 
induce the states to adopt, or ratify, the Constitution: 
unless nine states ratified, it would not become law. 
Many of the leading men of the country, among them 
Patrick Henry, opposed it. George Mason, who had 
helped to make it, refused to sign, and went back to 
Virginia to lead the fight against it. Each state elected 
a convention to pass on the new federal Constitution, 
and the battle was fought out in these conventions. 
One by one the conventions ratified, until finally the 
Virginia convention ratified, though by a small majority. 
This settled the fate of the Constitution. Two states, 


237 


Rhode Island and North Carolina, refused to ratify, 
but when they found themselves alone they, likewise, 
came into the fold. The government of the United 
States really existed at last. 

George Washington President.—A large part of the 
American people—perhaps a majority—opposed the 
Constitution at the beginning, but when George Wash¬ 
ington was elected President they placed confidence in 
the new government. On April 30, 1789, Washington 
was inaugurated in New York City, the first capital of 
the federal government. The seat of government was 
soon moved to Philadelphia, and, after ten years, to 
Washington, where it has remained ever since. 

Powers of the Federal Government.—Under the 
Constitution, the United States government has the fol¬ 
lowing powers which cannot be exercised by the indi¬ 
vidual states: 

To declare war. 

To maintain an army and navy. 

To coin money. 

To regulate immigration. 

To regulate commerce with foreign nations and between 
the states. 

To make treaties with foreign nations. 

To grant patents and copyrights. 

To establish post offices and post roads. 

Amendments to the Constitution.—The Constitu¬ 
tion, though it is the supreme law of the land, has been 
amended a number of times. A proposed amendment 
must be passed by a two-tliirds vote of both houses of 
Congress. Then it must be approved by the legis¬ 
latures of three fourths of the states. The first ten 
amendments, passed shortly after the Constitution had 
238 


been ratified, were intended to secure the rights of the 
people and of the states against the power of the federal 
government. They are sometimes called the American 
Bill of Rights. Among other things these first amend¬ 
ments secured the right of trial by jury; freedom of 
speech and of the press; freedom of religion; the right 
of petition; and the security of the home. The 
eleventh amendment defined the jurisdiction of the 
United States courts. The twelfth amendment changed 
the mode of electing the President. The next three 
amendments came as a result of the War between the 
States. The thirteenth abolished slavery; the four¬ 
teenth made the negro a citizen; and the fifteenth for¬ 
bade the states to deny citizens the right to vote on 
account of race or color. Then for many years there 
were no more amendments. The sixteenth amendment 
gave the federal government the right to levy an income 
tax. The seventeenth changed the mode of choosing 
United States senators, making them elective by the 
people. The eighteenth forbade the manufacture and 
sale of alcoholic drinks in the United States. The nine¬ 
teenth and last amendment gave women the right to 
vote in elections. 

Secession. —One right that the states were believed 
by many people to have, even after the Constitution 
was framed, was the right of secession —that is, of leav¬ 
ing the Union in case of danger from the federal govern¬ 
ment. This right of secession was expressly proclaimed 
by the state of Virginia when it ratified the Constitu¬ 
tion, and it was not disputed. For years the right of 
secession was asserted by many of the public men of 
the country, especially of New England. But little by 
239 


little the powers of the federal government were ex¬ 
tended, principally by the decisions of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, until a large part of the 
country came to deny this right of secession. It was 
still asserted, however, by the Southern states, which, 
in 1861, put it to the test by seeking to leave the Union. 
The War between the States was the result. The South¬ 
ern states were forced to return to the Union, and it is 
now recognized as a principle of our government that 
no state has the right to leave the Union under any 
circumstances. 

Club Activities 

1. Be able to tell in class by what body and in what way the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States was framed, and how it was adopted. 

2. Discuss the disagreement among the delegates to the convention 
over the degree of power that should be given to the federal government 
and that left to the states. 

3. Tell what difficulty arose in later years because the degree of power 
left to the states was not fully decided by the Constitution. 

4. Give a brief statement of the powers of the federal government and 
tell how the Constitution is amended 

5. Give the sixteenth, seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth amend¬ 
ments. 

6. Memorize the preamble of the Constitution. (See page 314.) 


240 


CHAPTER XXXV 

THE PRESIDENT AND THE EXECUTIVE DEPARTMENTS 

Problems: To study (1) the work of the President; and 
(2) the various offices of the executive department. 

How the President is Chosen.—By the plan for 
electing the President, each state selects a certain 
number of delegates who meet and choose the President 
and Vice President. These men are called presidential 
electors, and each state has as many of them as it has 
Senators and Representatives: the entire group of 
electors from all the states is known as the electoral 
college. At first the legislatures appointed the electors 
because they doubted the wisdom of letting the people 
have a direct part in the election of such an important 
officer as the President. Soon, however, the people 
were permitted to vote for the electors; and the Presi¬ 
dent ever since has been really elected by the people. 
The electoral college is only a form. 

Process of Election.—Presidential elections are held 
on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in Novem¬ 
ber of each year divisible by four. Each political party 
has a full set of electors, and you vote for those repre¬ 
senting the party you prefer. The electors of the party 
which receives the largest number of votes meet in the 
state capital on the second Monday in January follow¬ 
ing the election and cast their votes for the candidates 
of their party. They send a record of their votes to the 
president of the Senate of the United States. On the 
241 


second Wednesday in February following the presiden¬ 
tial election, the votes of the electors from all the states 
are counted in the Capitol at Washington in the pres¬ 
ence of both houses of Congress: the candidate receiv¬ 
ing the majority of votes is declared elected. You may 
think that this is a very strange way of electing a Pres¬ 
ident, but you must remember that the choice is really 
decided by the votes of the people at the November 
election. Ordinarily, a few hours after th$ election closes 
everybody in the country knows who is to be President. 

The Presidential Succession.—The President, as 
you know, is elected for a term of four years. If he 
governs according to the wishes of the people he may 
be reelected for a second term. Washington and 
Jefferson refused a third term, thereby establishing a 
kind of unwritten law that no President shall serve 
longer than two terms. Several of our Presidents have 
died during their term of office. When this happens, 
the Vice President succeeds to the presidency. In 
1886, Congress passed the Presidential Succession Act, 
which provides that in case of the death of both Presi¬ 
dent and Vice President the cabinet officers shall be¬ 
come President in the following order; Secretary of 
State, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of War, 
Attorney-General, Postmaster-General, Secretary of 
the Navy, Secretary of the Interior. 

Inauguration of the President.—The inauguration 
of the President occurs on March 4 following the 
election, and is an interesting event to the United 
States. Thousands of people go to Washington to see 
the ceremonies.* The Chief Justice of the Supreme 
Court administers the oath of office, which is as follows: 

242 


I do solemnly swear that I will faithfully execute the 
office of President of the United States, and will, to the best 
of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitu¬ 
tion of the United States. 

The President must be a native-born citizen, and 
must have resided in the United States fourteen years, 
and be at least thirty-five years old. His salary is 
$75,000 a year. 

President’s Appointing Power. —The President is 
the chief executive of the nation. He sees that the 
laws are faithfully carried out, sends a message to Con¬ 
gress in which he recommends legislation, and has the 
power to call extra sessions of Congress. He appoints 
the members of his cabinet, ministers to foreign coun¬ 
tries, and many other officials, such as judges of the 
federal courts and postmasters. Except in the case of 
his cabinet members, appointments by the President 
must be approved by the Senate. The President also 
has the power of removing for good cause officers 
appointed by him except judges, who may be removed 
after being tried and convicted of misconduct. 

Civil Service. —The appointing power of the Presi¬ 
dent causes him a deal of worry, as an army of office- 
seekers is always besieging him for places. There was 
a time when government offices were considered a 
reward for party service, and with each change in 
political power thousands of persons lost their positions. 
In 1883 the Civil Service Act was passed. Under this 
law most government employees stand an examination, 
and when appointed they cannot be removed because 
of political opinions. 

President as Commander-in-Chief. —The President 

243 


is commander-in-chief of the army, and as such must 
preserve the laws of the United States in all the states 
and territories. He has the right to send soldiers into 
any state where violence is interfering with the -mails. 
If disorder breaks out which the militia cannot quell, 
the governor of the state may call upon the President 
for military assistance. In case of war, the control of 
the whole military and naval forces of the country is in 
his hands. 

Other Presidential Powers.—Another power pos¬ 
sessed by the President is that of making treaties with 
other nations, but all such agreements have to be rati¬ 
fied by the Senate. The President may also pardon 
persons convicted of crimes against the laws of the 
United States. An important power possessed by him 
is that of vetoing bills passed by Congress. When this 
power is exercised by the President, as is frequently the. 
case, he returns the bill to Congress with his objections. 
The bill may be passed over the veto by a two-thirds 
vote of Congress. 

The President’s Cabinet.—Just before the President 
is inaugurated he appoints his cabinet members, who 
are to assist him in carrying on the weighty affairs of 
government. Washington had only four members in 
his cabinet: Secretary of State, Secretary of the 
Treasury, Secretary of War, and Attorney-General. 
But the work of the government has grown to such an 
extent that six other officers have been added: Secre¬ 
tary of the Navy, Postmaster-General, Secretary of the 
Interior, Secretary of Agriculture, Secretary of Com¬ 
merce, and Secretary of Labor. Each cabinet officer 
is the head of one of the departments of government 
244 


and frequently advises with the President about the 
work for which he is responsible. In fact, cabinet 
meetings are held regularly for the purpose of discuss¬ 
ing questions concerning the welfare of the country. 
At these meetings important decisions are made as to 
the policy of the government. 

Departments. —The State Department, presided 
over by the Secretary of State, assists the President in 
dealings with foreign powers. In the offices of thil 
department are filed the treaties of the United States 
with other nations. The Treasury Department con¬ 
ducts the loans made by the government, such as the 
bond issues, and supervises the collection of taxes. It 
makes the money for the country. It also oversees 
the national bank system of the country, and performs 
other services. The Department of Justice , at the head 
of which is the Attorney-General, prosecutes those 
guilty of violating the federal laws. Many of the suits 
brought by the Department of Justice have been 
against great corporations, or trusts , as they are called, 
for alleged violations of the federal laws against mo¬ 
nopolies for fixing prices. The Department of the 
Interior has many important bureaus, such as the 
Reclamation Service, Pension Bureau, Bureau of 
Mines, and Bureau of Education. Under the Depart¬ 
ment of Agriculture are: the Bureau of Plant Industry, 
Bureau of Crop Estimates, Bureau of Animal Industry, 
the Weather Bureau, and other important govern¬ 
mental agencies. The Department of Commerce takes 
the census every ten years, registers all United States 
merchant ships, maintains lighthouses, and does many 
other things for the upbuilding of the commerce of the 
24 5 


United States. The new Department of Labor gathers 
statistics on the condition of laborers and tries in every 
possible way to promote the welfare of the workers of 
the country. There has been recently established in 
this department the Child’s Welfare Bureau. The War 
Department controls the army; the Navy Department 
the sea forces. The Postal Department conducts the 
post-office system. In addition to the ten depart¬ 
ments there are a number of special boards or com¬ 
missions: the Interstate Commerce Commission, the 
Civil Service Commission, the Federal Reserve Board, 
and others. 

Biggest Business in the World.—In this chapter we 
have taken a rapid view of the executive work of our 
government. Thousands of persons, not only at Wash¬ 
ington but all over the land and the world, are working 
in order that we may have a good government. In 
nearly every country our nation has ministers, who 
represent the government, and consuls, who look after 
our trade interests. At the head of all these workers 
is the President with his many weighty duties. A 
study of this chapter should teach us that the biggest 
business in the world is that of the United States 
government. 

Club Activities 
1. Answer these questions: 

Why is the President called “The Chief Executive of the 
Nation”? 

How many votes has the electoral college? What constitutes a 
majority of these votes? 

What very important treaty was negotiated by President 
Wilson and what action did the Senate take upon it? 

Which of the Presidents died in office? 


246 


2. Compare the appointive power of the governor of your state with 
that of the President. 

3. Appoint a committee to collect the names and photographs of . the 
cabinet members now in office and to find out what is done at a cabinet 
meeting. 

4. Appoint a classmate to report for which candidate the electoral 
votes of each state were cast in the last presidential election. 

5. Explain fully how a treaty is made. 

6. Make a list of the Presidents who served two terms. 

7. What are the duties of a minister to a foreign country? What 
are those of a consul? 

8. Discuss the value of the Civil Service system. 


247 



Copyright, Clinedinst 

(248) The United States House of Representatives 














CHAPTER XXXVI 
CONGRESS AND ITS WORK 

Problems: To learn (1) about the work of Congress; 
and (2) the part your Congressmen take in it. 

Why Congress Consists of Two Bodies.—The Con¬ 
gress of the United States consists of two houses or 
bodies—the Senate and the House of Representatives. 
When you visit the Capitol in Washington you will be 
shown the Senate chamber in the north side of the 
great building, and the hall of the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives in the south wing. Why do we have two 
lawmaking bodies? At the time of the Revolutionary 
War the legislatures of most of the states were com¬ 
posed of two houses—an idea borrowed from the 
British Parliament, which consists of the House of 
Lords and the House of Commons. The Continental 
Congress, on the other hand, was a single chamber. 
Experience shows that the two-house plan is the better, 
for under this system each house serves as a check on 
the other. If the House of Representatives passes an 
objectionable bill, the Senate has the power to defeat 
or amend it. In this way there is less chance of 
passing bad laws than under the one-house plan, where 
a bill may be rushed through without careful consid¬ 
eration. 

Senate More Important.—Which house of Congress 
is the more important? From one standpoint they are 
both of equal rank, for no bill passed by one house 
249 


becomes a law until it is also passed by the other. The 
framers of the Constitution evidently intended, how¬ 
ever, that the Senate should be a more dignified and 
important body than the House of Representatives, and 
so it has turned out in actual practice. The Senate is 
a smaller body than the House of Representatives. 
The members are usually older, and as a rule have had 
more experience in legislative matters than Representa¬ 
tives. The fact that the Senate confirms appointments 
of the President and ratifies treaties with foreign nations 
adds to its power and influence. 

The Senate.—The Senate is composed of ninety-six 
Senators, two from each state. It may seem strange to 
you that the state of Nevada, with a population of 
about seventy thousand, should have the same number 
of Senators as the great state of New York, with more 
than ten million people. The explanation is that when 
the Constitution was being made small states such as 
Maryland and New Jersey refused to approve it unless 
they were given equal representation in the Senate with 
the larger states. 

Election of Senators.—The Constitution provides 
that Senators shall be elected by state legislatures, and 
this was done until 1913, when the Constitution was 
amended to provide for their election by the people. 
Senators are chosen for a term of six years. They are 
not all elected the same year. The terms of one third 
expire every two years, so that it is impossible for all 
Senators to be new to their office at any one time. 
When a Senator dies, the governor of the state appoints 
a successor until an election is held. The yearly salary 
of both Senators and Representatives is $7500. The 
250 



Senate has equal power with the House of Representa¬ 
tives in introducing and passing laws, with this excep¬ 
tion, that all bills for raising money must be introduced 
in the House of Representatives. 

The House of Representatives.—In the House of 
Representatives in the First Congress there sat only 
sixty-five men; the present House of Representatives 
consists of four hundred and thirty-five members. The 
reason for this large increase is that the number of 


The National Capitol 

Representatives depends on population, which is con¬ 
tinually growing. The lower house has become so large 
that many persons think the number should not be 
further increased. Some states have only one or two 
Representatives; some, thirty or forty. Thus we see 
that in the House of Representatives, unlike the Senate, 
the larger states have much greater power than the 
smaller ones. 


251 






Congressional Districts.—The term of a Representa¬ 
tive is two years. Each state is divided into Congres¬ 
sional districts, the number of which depends upon the 
population. At the present time a district contains 
about 210,000 people. When a Representative dies or 
resigns, the governor of the state orders a special elec¬ 
tion to choose a successor. 

The Speaker.—The presiding officer of the House of 
Representatives is the speaker. The speaker possesses 
great influence. He decides which member shall be 
allowed to speak when several desire to be heard and 
appoints the members of the committees. Among the 
other officers of the House are the clerk, sergeant-at- 
arms, and chaplain. The clerk keeps a record of all 
bills introduced and passed and also compiles the Con¬ 
gressional Record, containing the speeches made. The 
sergeant-at-arms preserves order in the House. You 
would think that the members of Congress would always 
be calm and dignified, but sometimes in the heat of 
argument the House of Representatives is thrown into 
confusion, and it is then necessary for the sergeant-at- 
arms to restore order. 

Congressional Committees.—You saw m your study 
of city and state governments that an important feature 
of lawmaking bodies is the system of committees to 
which each bill is referred. Some of the important com¬ 
mittees of Congress are: Ways and Means, Appro¬ 
priations, Foreign Relations, Agriculture, Rivers and 
Harbors. The principal work of a Senator or Repre¬ 
sentative consists in attending the meetings of the 
committees of which he is a member. 

How a Law is Passed.—The course of legislation in 
252 


Congress is practically the same as in a state legislature. 
A member introduces a bill. Its title is read, after which 
it is referred to the proper committee, where it is fully 
discussed. If the committee thinks the bill ought to 
become a law, it is reported back to the house with the 
recommendation that it pass. . It is then read in full and 
placed on the calendar with hundreds of other bills. 
Finally, it comes up for the third reading and for 
debate by those who favor and oppose it. If the 
bill is passed, it is sent to the other house, where it 
takes the same course. If the bill is passed by both 
houses of Congress, it then goes to the President, 
who may dispose of it in any one of the following 
ways: 

1. He may sign it, thereby making it a law. 

2. He may keep it for ten days without signing it, 
in which case it becomes a law without his signature. 

3. He may veto the bill—that is, return it to Con¬ 
gress—with a statement of his objections to it. Congress 
may pass a bill over the President’s veto by a vote of 
two thirds of its members. 

How Impeachments Are Tried.—When the Presi¬ 
dent, United States judges, or other officers of the gov¬ 
ernment are guilty of treason or other crimes, they may 
be tried, or impeached , as it is called, by Congress. In 
impeachment trials, the House of Representatives 
makes the charges against the person on trial, and the 
Senate acts as the judge and jury. Impeachment trials 
are solemn events. Each Senator takes an oath to 
judge impartially; the person on trial is represented by 
distinguished lawyers; the testimony is heard, and the 
Senate holds a secret session to decide the guilt or inno- 
253 


cence of the accused. If the President is being im¬ 
peached, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court pre¬ 
sides over the Senate. The most famous impeachment 
case was that of President Johnson in 1868 . He was 
acquitted by one vote. 

Club Activities 

1. Answer these questions: 

How many Congressional districts has your state? 

Who is your member of the House of Representatives? 

How is a bill passed over the President’s veto? 

What are the duties of the chaplain of the House of Repre¬ 
sentatives? 

Can a member of Congress be arrested for a crime? (See 
Article I, Section 6, of the Constitution.) 

2. Refer to the Constitution and find the qualifications of Senators 
and Representatives. 

3. Name your Senators. Tell what offices they held before going to 
the Senate. 

4. Bring to the class newspaper clippings telling what bills are being 
considered in Congress at the present time. 

5. Refer to Section 8, Article I, of the Constitution, and name the 
powers possessed by Congress. 


£54 


CHAPTER XXXVII 
THE FEDERAL COURTS 

Problems: (1) To learn why federal courts are necessary; 
and (2) to consider some of the cases they try. 

Why Federal Courts Are Necessary.—We have 
studied about the executive and legislative branches of 
our national government and now come to the third 
branch, the judicial. Why is it necessary to have 
United States courts? There are state courts in every 
city and county. If a man commits a crime such as 
murder or theft he is tried in these courts; or if one 
citizen wishes to sue another at law he brings the suit 
in a state court. A little thought, however, will con¬ 
vince you that there are certain civil cases, as well as 
crimes, over which the national government alone has 
authority. If a boat collides with another, the owners 
of the damaged vessel must bring suit in a United States 
court, since the federal government controls navigation. 
If a man is charged with counterfeiting, he must stand 
trial in a federal court, because the states have no 
authority over the making of money. Then there are 
larger questions, such as the meaning of treaties and 
the interpretation of the Constitution as the supreme 
law of the land, which make it necessary to have federal 
courts. 

The Different Federal Courts.—The Constitution 
provides that there shall be one Supreme Court and 
such inferior courts as Congress may from time to time 
255 


establish. Besides the Supreme Court, there are now 
about thirty Circuit Courts of Appeal and about a 
hundred District Courts, and a number of special courts. 
All federal judges are appointed by the President, sub¬ 
ject to confirmation by the Senate, and hold office for 
life or during good behavior. Each judicial district has 
a United States marshal, whose duties are somewhat 
similar to those of a sheriff, and a district attorney, 
whose duties correspond to those of a commonwealth’s 
attorney in state courts. 

The Supreme Court.—The Supreme Court is com¬ 
posed of nine justices and meets in the Capitol at 
Washington. It is the highest tribunal in the land. 
The judges are clothed in black gowns, and the pro¬ 
ceedings are solemn. One of the judges is called the 
Chief Justice, and his office is considered by lawyers 
to be the highest and most honorable of the legal 
profession. The decisions of the Supreme Court are 
final, because there is no higher court to which one 
may go. 

Cases Tried in the Federal Courts.—Many wise 
lawyers have difficulty in deciding at times whether a 
case should be tried in a state or federal court. But 
there are certain cases that clearly belong in the United 
States courts. If an ambassador, for instance, is 
charged with an offense while in this country, he has 
the right to go to the Supreme Court for trial. If one 
state wishes to bring suit against another, it also goes 
directly to the highest court of the land. It should be 
remembered, however, that most cases tried by the 
Supreme Court come up on appeal from lower courts. 
Cases are often appealed to the Supreme Court on the 
256 


ground that decisions of the state courts which tried 
them violate the United States Constitution. 

Among the kinds of cases tried in the United States 
District Court are the following: 

1. When the citizen of one state is suing the citizen of 
another for a sum exceeding $3000. 



Chief Justice John Marshall 

2. All admiralty cases—that is, law suits arising over 
disputes between owners of vessels. 

3. Proceedings in bankruptcy. Under the bankruptcy 
law a person who has failed in business may have his debts 
canceled, provided he surrenders his property for the 
benefit of his creditors. The Federal government passed 
this law to enable a man hopelessly in debt to make a new 
start in business. 


257 


4. Proceedings against trusts or large corporations 
charged with violating the Sherman Act passed by Congress 
to prevent large corporations from controlling the prices 
of the necessities of life. 

5. Criminal cases against smugglers, counterfeiters, 
moonshiners, and others charged with violating federal laws. 
Persons whom the federal courts sentence to imprisonment 
are not sent to state penitentiaries, but are confined in 
federal prisons. One of the largest of these is located in 
Atlanta, Georgia. 

6. Crimes of all kinds committed on property of the 
United States. 

The cases that come before the Circuit Courts of 
Appeal are appealed to it from the District Courts. 

Injunctions and Habeas Corpus.—The federal courts, 
as well as the state courts, frequently issue injunctions 
and writs of habeas corpus. Let us explain briefly what 
these writs are. When a court issues a writ of injunc¬ 
tion it commands a person not to do a certain thing. 
To illustrate—during strikes, federal judges sometimes 
order strikers not to place pickets around factories and 
railroad yards to prevent new men from taking their 
places. In some cases where these orders have been 
violated the labor leaders have been found guilty of 
“contempt of court,” and have been sentenced to 
prison. The writ of habeas corpus is intended to pro¬ 
tect the liberty of a person unlawfully imprisoned, and 
originated over seven hundred years ago when the 
English people wrung from King John the Magna 
Carta. Before that time English kings had imprisoned 
men without a warrant or a trial. In this country, if 
any man is put in prison without a warrant charging 
him with a crime, his friends may apply to a court for 
a writ of habeas corpus. In the writ the judge orders 
258 


the sheriff or marshal to bring the body of the prisoner 
before him in order that he may determine whether or 
not the man is unlawfully held in custody. The Con¬ 
stitution of the United States provides that “the privi¬ 
lege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended 
unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public 
safety may require it.” 

Deciding on Constitutionality. —The most important 
function of the Supreme Court is to decide if laws 
passed by Congress are in accordance with the Con¬ 
stitution. For instance, in 1894, Congress passed an 
act putting a tax on incomes. The Supreme Court 
declared this law to be unconstitutional, and it was 
necessary to pass an amendment to the Constitution 
before the federal government could tax the incomes of 
citizens. 

Club Activities 

1. Answer these questions: 

Where is the nearest federal court to your home located? 

Who was the first Chief Justice of the Supreme Court? 

What is meant by the statement that federal judges hold office 
“for life or during good behavior”? 

How are your state judges selected? 

Can you think of any objections to electing judges by the people? 

Why is the Supreme Court composed of an odd number of 
justices? 

2. Bring to your class newspaper clippings telling of cases tried in 
federal courts. 

3. Give a brief report of a great case in your American history which 
was decided by the Supreme Court of the United States. 


259 


CHAPTER XXXVIII 
MONEY AND CREDIT 

Problems: To study (1) the “medium of exchange”* 
and (2) the banking system. 

Goods to Exchange.—We have seen that everybody 
in the community who works has a commodity or a 
service to sell to other people in exchange for the things 
he needs. Thus the farmer raises more wheat and corn, 
pumpkins and watermelons, eggs and chickens than he 
needs himself. The surplus product of his farm he 
exchanges with merchants for clothes, shoes, and other 
articles, for medical attention, for legal services, and for 
various needs. In the same way, the physician gives 
his professional services to the farmer for food, to the 
merchant for goods, and to the lawyer for legal aid. 

Exchange in a Primitive Community.—In a primi¬ 
tive community people sell their goods and services by 
what is called barter —that is, the farmer pays the mer¬ 
chant for a suit of clothes with so many bushels of 
wheat or so many dozens of eggs. He pays the physi¬ 
cian in the same manner, and even gives his share to 
the support of religion in farm products. But this 
method of direct exchange is difficult and time-wasting. 
It is not always possible to find a merchant who hap¬ 
pens to want foodstuffs at the same time that the farmer 
wants clothes or other articles; and it takes a long time 
to determine the exact number of bushels that a suit 
of clothes, for instance, is worth. In fact, hundreds, 
260 


even thousands, of years ago barter was found to be 
unsatisfactory, and another method of exchange was 
invented. 

The Medium of Exchange.—The problem was to 
find some one thing so universally desirable that every¬ 
body would be willing to give goods or services for it 
at any time. Thus the farmer might buy with his food¬ 
stuffs this medium of exchange and when he needed 
clothes could purchase them with the medium instead 
of with farm products. Many articles have served, at 
different times and in different countries, as mediums 
of exchange. 

Various Mediums. — The ancient Greeks and 
Romans, in their early history, used cattle as a medium 
of exchange. The Norwegians had wheat as their 
medium; the Britons, tin; the Russians, tea; the 
American Indians, strings of shells called wampum ; the 
New England colonists, beaver skins; the colonial Vir¬ 
ginia planters, tobacco; and in many parts of Africa to 
this day salt is the medium of exchange. Why was it 
that these various products were found so unsatis¬ 
factory as mediums of exchange that people no longer 
use them? For a number of reasons. Take cattle, for 
instance. To pay for an article with a certain number 
of cattle, say five, would not do very well, for cattle 
differ so much in size and worth that five cattle might 
mean a considerable value or almost no value at all. 
Then, again, if one wished to buy an article of small 
value cattle could not be used. Take tobacco, for an¬ 
other instance. When a large tobacco crop was raised 
in Virginia, its value lessened so greatly that many 
hundredweight of it were required to buy any article 
261 


of consequence. On the other hand, in case of a crop 
failure the value of tobacco rose so high that a certain 
weight of it purchased two or three times the amount 
of goods the same weight purchased when tobacco was 
plentiful. This constant change, or fluctuation, in the 
value of tobacco made it a bad medium of exchange. 
There was another objection to its use for this purpose: 
it was so bulky that it was hard to carry from place to 
place to use in making purchases. Yet this difficulty 
was overcome—can you guess how? Well, the tobacco 
was carried to the nearest public warehouse and exam¬ 
ined; the inspector then gave the owner a receipt for 
it, called a “tobacco note.” The owner, in buying 
goods somewhere else, made over this tobacco note to 
the seller instead of carrying him the tobacco; and the 
person holding the tobacco note sold it to some ship 
captain seeking a cargo at the warehouse where the 
tobacco was stored. In this roundabout way tobacco 
was used as a medium of exchange all through the 
colonial period. 

Coined Money.—The experience of thousands of 
years has taught mankind that the best medium of 
exchange is metallic money. Silver and gold are the 
metals now used for money nearly the world over. 
Why is this? Because silver and gold are beautiful 
metals and desirable apart from their employment as 
money. Furthermore, they are much scarcer than other 
metals, such as copper and iron, and therefore more 
valuable. For a long period both gold and silver were 
standard money—that is, all other articles were meas¬ 
ured by their value both in gold and silver. A gold 
dollar had a dollar’s worth of gold in it, and a silver 
262 


dollar had a dollar’s worth of silver. But as silver 
grew to be far more plentiful than gold, its value went 
down until there was less than a dollar’s worth of silver 
in a coined silver dollar. It was impossible indeed to 
put a full dollar’s worth of silver in a dollar because the 
coin would be too large, and besides, the value of silver 
changed or fluctuated rapidly, though with a constant 
downward tendency. The result was that most of the 
governments of the world, including the United States, 
have made gold the single standard money. People 
accept silver dollars without fear, because they know 
that the government will redeem them in gold dollars, 
if need be, though the silver dollars themselves do not 
contain a full dollar’s worth of silver. 

Paper Money.—Both gold and silver money are 
rather heavy and bulky in large amounts. For this and 
other reasons, governments issue payer money , which 
consists of the government’s promise to redeem paper 
bills in metallic money if called on. So long as the 
credit of the government is good, people do not wish to 
exchange the paper money for gold or silver, because of 
the convenience of paper; but if the credit of the gov¬ 
ernment declines the paper money goes down in value. 
Thus in the War between the States, the paper money 
put out by the Confederate government declined almost 
to worthlessness in the last part of the war when people 
saw that the South would probably fail to gain its inde¬ 
pendence and so be unable to redeem its paper money 
in gold or silver. At the same time, the paper money 
of the United States fell to about half the value of 
gold, as people realized that years must pass before it 
could be redeemed in metallic money. In Russia at 
263 



[ 264 ) The Interior of a Bank 





























the present time many people will not accept the paper 
money of the Bolshevik government because such 
immense amounts of it have been issued that every¬ 
body knows that it will never be redeemed in metallic 
money. Consequently the people of Russia have gone 
back to barter for want of a reliable money or medium 
of exchange. 

Credit.—We have spoken of the “credit of the gov¬ 
ernment.” Credit means faith in the intention and 
ability of a borrower or purchaser to pay a debt at some 
date in the future. Most business is based on credit: 
if it were not for credit, no large business ventures 
would be possible, because business men are not able 
to keep great sums of money on hand at all times. 
Much of retail trade is conducted on credit. Often a 
buyer gives the seller a demand on a bank for the 
purchase money, which demand, written on a piece 
of paper, we call a check. A check, however, hardly 
comes under the name of credit, as it is usually sent 
to the bank on its receipt, and the money for which it 
calls is either immediately paid to the holder or added 
to his account. 

Banking.—For many centuries there were no recog¬ 
nized institutions where people could borrow money 
when they needed it. In Europe during the Middle 
Ages, Jews took the place of the bankers of the present 
day: they loaned money, but as they took great risks 
in lending it, in a period when law was feeble, they 
charged a high rate of interest. Besides, they frequently 
had no regular places of business. A better system was 
needed, and at the beginning of the modern period, 
soon after the discovery of America, regular places for 
265 


keeping and lending money sprang up. We call them 
banks. The first bankers were goldsmiths, to whom 
money was carried to be kept because they had large 
and heavy iron boxes in which they stored their gold 
and jewels. They were the successors of the Jews of 
the Middle Ages. Gradually the business of keeping 
money and lending it at interest was separated from 
the jewelry business, and banks as we know them 
came into existence. 

Functions of Banks.—The importance of banks has 
steadily grown with the development of business and 
industry, until at the present time they are necessary 
to our civilization. They are the sole places for storing 
money, because people nowadays almost never keep 
large sums of money in their homes and places of busi¬ 
ness: nearly all business is carried on by means of 
checks. Many banks, called savings banks, pay 
depositors three per cent (sometimes four) interest on 
the money they put on deposit, which is loaned out by 
the banks at six per cent. The banks lend money to 
business men on their notes, or promises to pay back 
at a certain time with interest; to purchasers of real 
estate, with the real estate itself as security for pay¬ 
ment of the loan, and in other ways. They also issue 
paper money, called bank notes. 

United States Banks.—There are several kinds of 
banks—United States banks, state banks, and private 
banks. United States banks are called national banks, 
and are under the control and supervision of the United 
States government. In 1913 the national banking sys¬ 
tem was greatly extended by the establishment of the 
Federal Reserve System. By this the country is 
266 


divided into twelve districts, with a Federal Reserve 
bank in the central city in each district: Richmond, 
Atlanta, and Dallas are among these centers. All 
national and many state banks are members of the 
system. The Federal Reserve banks issue paper money 
based on property held by the banks: these notes 
members of the system put out as needed. In recent 
years the United States government has established a 
number of land banks to lend money to farmers. These 
last banks are of great value to farmers, who have 
hitherto had trouble in borrowing money. The busi¬ 
ness soundness of the country and the prosperity of the 
people are dependent, in no small measure, on the bank¬ 
ing system, which is one of the features of modern life. 


Club Activities 

1. Answer these questions: 

How did people first exchange their products with each other? 

What are some of the objections to this method? 

What are some things that have been used as “mediums of 
exchange”? 

What are the principal metals used for money? What other 
metals are used for smaller money? 

Why has gold been selected as the “single standard” money? 
What is a check? A note? 

2. Give a description of the rise of banks. 

3. Describe a modern bank. 

4. Find out all you can about the Federal Reserve banking system. 


267 


CHAPTER XXXIX 

HOW THE NATIONAL GOVERNMENT RAISES REVENUE 

Problems: (1) To ascertain what our national expenses 
are; and ( 2 ) to find out how revenue is raised to meet these 
expenses. 

The Expenses of the National Government.—Did 

you ever stop to consider how much money is needed 
to run the United States government? Thousands of 
government officials and employees are paid by Uncle 
Sam; ambassadors are sent to foreign countries; post 
offices, forts, and battleships must be built; the army 
is supported; interest must be paid on the public debt; 
and in hundreds of other ways the government is called 
upon to expend large sums. At the .present time it 
costs the United States several billion dollars a year to 
run its government. The members of your class could 
not count such a vast sum of money in a dozen life¬ 
times, even if it were in ten-dollar gold coins. Let us 
consider how the government raises the money it needs. 
It has three main sources of revenue: the tariff; reve¬ 
nue taxes; the income tax. 

Tariff.—The Constitution provides that the federal 
government alone may levy a tax on imports. The 
states raise the funds they need mainly by taxing real 
estate and personal property. The founders of the gov¬ 
ernment knew that it would not do for the federal gov¬ 
ernment to tax these forms of property also, so they 
decided to raise revenue mainly by means of a tax on 
268 


imported goods. A tariff is an excellent form of tax¬ 
ation in so far that the average person never realizes 
that he is paying it. When you buy a piece of ribbon 
imported from France, you think you are paying the 
merchant what it costs to make the ribbon plus a 
profit, but you are really paying much more: a part of 
its price has already been paid by the importer to Uncle 
Sam as a duty and is added to the original cost of the 
ribbon. In your history class you have seen that the 
tariff question has been an issue in many national elec¬ 
tions. Some people believe in a tariff for revenue only, 
while others favor a tariff that will protect American- 
made goods against foreign competition. By making 
the tariff very high, foreign goods are brought into the 
country under a heavy disadvantage or are kept out 
altogether. 

Internal Revenue.—You know the meaning of the 
word internal. As applied to revenue, it refers to the 
money raised by the federal government through taxes 
on certain articles produced within our country. No 
doubt you have often seen government stamps on ciga¬ 
rette and cigar boxes. Many a battleship has been built 
with the money paid for these little stamps. Each gal¬ 
lon of alcoholic liquors is also heavily taxed by Uncle 
Sam. However, since it is now unlawful to manu¬ 
facture or sell intoxicating liquors as beverages, little 
revenue comes from this source. 

Paying for a War.—In 1916 the national debt was 
little more than one billion dollars; it is now nearly 
twenty-three billions. Most of this huge debt was 
created during the World War. This is an illustration 
of the fact that war not only kills off thousands of men, 
269 


but leaves tremendous financial burdens for future gen¬ 
erations to bear. In war times the ordinary methods 
of taxation do not produce sufficient funds to meet the 
needs of the government, and special means of raising 
money must be devised. This is usually accomplished 
by special taxes, such as taxes on chewing gum, theater 
tickets, and other luxuries; on business profits; on in¬ 
comes; and by loans, or bond issues. The Liberty 
Loan was the great bond issue of the World War. 

Income Taxes. —The largest source of revenue is the 
income tax. This tax is levied on all incomes above a 
certain amount, but large incomes pay a much heavier 
rate than small ones. Much money is also obtained 
from a tax on estates when they are inherited by heirs 
at the death of the owner. 

Club Activities 

1. Answer these questions: 

What is a custom house? Smuggling? 

What does one mean by “a moonshiner”? 

What taxes, if any, have you ever paid to Uncle Sam? 

Whom would you consider a “slacker” in the matter of taxation? 

2. Explain how you help the government when you buy War Saving 
Stamps; also how you help yourself. 

3. Appoint some one to bring a Liberty Bond to class for the purpose 
of reading the exact words it contains. Examine carefully the interest 
coupons. 

4. Tell what is meant by an income tax. Men whose income is, let 
us say, $500,000 a year pay a much larger income tax rate than men who 
make $4,000. Give some reasons for this. 


270 


CHAPTER XL 
POLITICAL PARTIES 

Problems: (1) To learn the history of the great political 
parties; and (2) to find out how they work. 

Why We Have Political Parties.—Your father is 
probably either a Democrat or a Republican. That is, 
he is a member of one of the two great parties which 
contend for the control of the federal and state govern¬ 
ments. Why do we have these parties? The answer is 
that in a country governed by the people it is necessary 
to have some method of expressing differences of 
opinion. So the people who think one way about polit¬ 
ical matters form one party, and the people who think 
another way form another party. Each party presents 
its 'platform, or statement of principles, on the eve of 
an election, and the voters decide between them. The 
party that wins in the election rules the country accord¬ 
ing to its principles until the next election, when the 
voters have an opportunity to change to another party 
if they so desire. 

Early Parties.—The first parties in the United 
States were the Federalists , who favored the ratification 
of the Constitution in 1788, and the Anti-Federalists , 
who opposed it. The Constitution was ratified, and the 
Anti-Federalist party went out of existence. It was 
succeeded some years later by the Democratic-Repub¬ 
lican party, organized by Thomas Jefferson. The 
Federalists had come, by this time, to believe in a 
271 


strong central government which should override the 
states. The Democratic-Republicans, on the other 
hand, believed in maintaining the full rights of the 
individual states—that is, of strong local government. 
They also wished to give a large share of power to the 
mass of the people. In the election of 1800, Jefferson 
and Burr, the candidates of the Democratic-Repub¬ 
licans, were successful. Some years later, in 1812, the 
United States went to war with England over its rights 
on the sea. The Federalists opposed this war, and 
made themselves so unpopular that their party came 
to an end. 

Later Parties.—From 1818 to 1832 there was only 
one party in the country, the Democratic-Republican, 
or Democratic , as it later came to be called. In 1832 
Henry Clay founded a new party, the Whig , which 
resembled the old Federalist party in advocating a 
strong federal government at the expense of the rights 
of the states. These two parties opposed each other 
until 1852: the Democrats were successful in all but 
two presidential elections. In the latter year the Whig 
party went to pieces, only to be succeeded a little later 
by another party, the Republican , which likewise 
favored a strong central government. The chief issue 
in politics now came to be the slavery question. The 
Democratic party opposed interference with slavery: 
the Republican party desired to break it up. In 1860 
the Republican party, with Abraham Lincoln as its 
presidential candidate, carried the election. The 
Southern states seceded, and the War between the 
States followed. After the war the Republicans con¬ 
tinued in power for many years. In 1884, however, 
272 


Grover Cleveland, a Democrat, was chosen President, 
and since that time the Democrats have won three 
presidential elections. Besides these great parties, the 
principal parties have been the Know-Nothing party of 
1850-1858; the Greenback party of 1875-1880, which 
advocated the issue of unlimited paper currency by the 
government; the Populist party, which supported the 
free coinage of silver; the Progressive party, which split 
from the Republican party and then went back to it; 
and the present Farmer-Labor party. Still others are 
the Socialist and Socialist-Labor parties. 

Party Conventions.—Presidential candidates are 
chosen by nominating conventions. For months before 
a presidential election the different parties lay plans for 
success at the polls. The first step is the holding of 
state conventions to elect delegates to the national con¬ 
ventions of the parties. In some states, presidential 
candidates are voted for in primaries, although the 
primary election as employed in selecting presidential 
candidates is not a success as yet. When the delegates 
are chosen—the number for each state is decided by the 
party managers, ordinarily in proportion to the number 
of voters—they go to the national convention, which is 
usually held in Chicago, St. Louis, or some other cen¬ 
trally located large city. The streets of the city are 
hung with flags, and the delegates parade behind bands 
on their way to hotels and the convention auditorium. 
An air of intense excitement pervades the city and, 
indeed, the whole country. The convention is held in a 
hall capable of seating thousands of people. The first 
important event is the adoption of a platform. A com¬ 
mittee draws up the platform, which is brought before 
273 


the convention and adopted. Next the nomina¬ 

tion of a candidate for President. One noted man after 
another is offered to the convention in speeches that 
excite the enthusiasm of the delegates. When all the 
candidates have been brought forward, the delegates 
vote by states. The voting continues until some man 
is chosen. In the Republican convention, a bare 
majority of delegates select the candidate, but in a 
Democratic convention a two-thirds majority is neces¬ 
sary. After a candidate for President has been nomi¬ 
nated, a vice presidential candidate is chosen in the 
same way. Then the convention breaks up. 

Campaign and Election.—A great political party 
spends millions of dollars in presenting its candidate to 
the people; this presentation is called the campaign. 
Headquarters are opened, with hundreds of clerks and 
stenographers; speakers are employed; literature is 
sent through the mails, and advertisements are dis¬ 
played. Election day arrives at last. There is great 
excitement throughout the country when the voters go 
to the polls. When night falls and the polls are closed, 
the excitement grows intense. In the large cities the 
newspapers flash searchlights of different colors as soon 
as the election returns begin to come in, to show which 
candidate is leading. When, at last, it is known who is 
elected, the enthusiasm reaches a high pitch. In the 
presidential election of 1920 more than 26,000,000 
votes were cast. This was the first presidential election 
in which women voted in all the states. 

Inauguration.—On March 4 following the election, 
the newly elected President is put in his office. He 
announces the members of his cabinet on the eve of the 
274 



Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 

!75) Voting by Machine 





inauguration. He goes to the White House on the 
morning of March 4 and rides therefrom to the Capitol, 
usually at the head of a great procession. At the 
Capitol he takes the oath of office and returns to the 
White House. Here he meets his cabinet for the first 
time, and by the evening of the same day one party 
has gone out of power and another has come in. This 
peaceful change of government, in obedience to the will 
of the people, is one of the most remarkable examples 
of political soundness the world has ever seen. In 
many countries the party in power holds a nominal 
election and counts the votes to suit itself. The weaker 
party then takes up arms, and a war follows. But in 
the United States the people cheerfully abide by the 
decision of the majority, and the outgoing President 
politely greets the incoming President and often rides 
with him to the Capitol, though the two men may have 
been opposing candidates in the preceding election. 


Club Activities 

1. Name the political parties that put forward candidates in the last 
presidential campaign. 

2. Appoint a classmate to report on the tariff plank in both the Repub¬ 
lican and Democratic platforms in the last election. 

3. Give the qualifications of a voter in your state and find out where is 
the nearest voting-place to your school. 

4. Explain what is meant by a corrupt election. 

5. In many states candidates who run for office are required to file a 
sworn statement setting forth all money expended by them in the election. 
Why is this required? 

6. Tell what you understand is meant by a political “boss.” 

7. Debate: Resolved , That every voter should belong to a political 
party. 


276 


CHAPTER XLI 
NATURALIZATION 

Problems: To learn (1) what is meant by “Naturaliza¬ 
tion”; and (2) how a foreigner becomes naturalized. 

Ellis Island.—If you should go to Ellis Island, in 
New York harbor, you would witness a singular sight. 
Ellis Island is the place where foreigners land and are 
examined before being admitted to America. There 
you would see people from every country in Europe and 
from some countries of Asia. Most of them are poor 
peasants. In many cases the women carry all the 
belongings of the family tied up in great bundles, for 
immigrants seldom have trunks and bags. Some of the 
immigrants wear the peasant costumes of southern and 
eastern Europe. In a majority of instances the family 
consists of mother, father, and children. Very seldom 
do the newcomers speak English: within the radius of 
a few yards you might hear half a dozen languages. 
You would be interested in the children. They are 
bright-eyed and eager, but frequently dirty, for all for¬ 
eigners are not accustomed to American cleanliness. 

Restriction of Immigration.—By the law of 1920 the 
various countries of the world are allowed to send only 
a certain number of immigrants to America each year. 
This is done to prevent the country from being swamped 
by millions of people from the war-wasted lands of 
Europe, who could not find work here and who would 
have to be supported by the United States. For years 
277 


past immigrants have been compelled to undergo a 
medical examination before admission, and those suffer¬ 
ing from certain diseases are not allowed to enter the 
country. Immigrants are also required to have a small 
amount of money, to show that they are not paupers 
seeking a land in which to live without work. 

Causes of Immigration.—All of the people of the 
United States, except Indians, are immigrants or de¬ 
scendants of immigrants. The first Americans came 
three centuries ago and for various reasons. They left 
Europe partly for religious and political liberty, but for 
the most part, as people do today, to improve their lot 
in life. For the last half century the immigrants have 
come largely from backward and oppressed lands; in 
most cases they have sought to make a better living 
than was possible at home. Many thousands of Rus¬ 
sian Jews, however, came to this country to escape per¬ 
secution. Another cause of immigration has been mili¬ 
tary service in European countries. Until recently 
able-bodied young men in all the lands of continental 
Europe were required to pass two or three years in the 
army. Thousands of boys who did not wish to go 
through this long and severe military training and lose 
several years from their work came to America. An¬ 
other cause that has brought many fairly prosperous 
people to the United States has been the larger oppor¬ 
tunities it offers: business men in England particularly 
move to America for this reason. All of these causes, 
working together, have drawn to this country millions 
of people, and the population has grown by leaps and 
bounds. 

Character of Immigrants.—The people who colonized 

278 


America were mainly Englishmen, together with Scotch, 
Scotch-Irish, Dutch, Germans, and French. The Eng¬ 
lish, being a large majority, gave the country an English 
flavor, but the people of other blood also did much to 
make America what it is. When America threw off the 
yoke of England and became an independent republic, 
the Americans were so inspired with the spirit of free¬ 
dom and so full of sympathy with the downtrodden 
people of Europe that they made the land the “ asylum 
of the oppressed” and welcomed all comers to our 
shores. The immigrants were glad to come and proud 
to be American citizens: they upheld our institutions 
enthusiastically. But late in the nineteenth century 
another class of immigrants began to come to America— 
people who thought that property should be in common 
and even that there should be no government at all. 
Some of these latter immigrants have sought to under¬ 
mine our country by awakening discontent, declaring 
that the people do not have their full rights. They do 
not value the chance to make a living in a free and happy 
country that America offers: usually they wish to live 
without work and at the expense of other people. It 
is only just to say, however, that immigrants of this 
sort are not numerous. The great majority of present- 
day immigrants, like those of the past, welcome the 
chance to live in the United States, and the number of 
newcomers who ask entrance to this country is fully as 
large as the law provides for. 

Danger from the Immigrants.—Some of these immi¬ 
grants bring a danger to America, and that is ignorance 
of our methods of government. Many of them come 
from countries where the people in the past have had 
279 


little or no voice in the government. They did not vote 
for their king, because kings are not elected. The laws 
were made for them, not by them. It is difficult for 
these immigrants, then, to learn that they have a voice 
in the government of the United States, if they become 
citizens, and that a part of the responsibility of the gov¬ 
ernment is theirs. When they become citizens, in the 
large cities they sometimes vote according to the dic¬ 
tation of some “boss” and without much idea as to 
what they vote for. This makes it possible for corrupt 
political “machines” to stay in power and misrule some 
of our greatest cities. A movement is now under way 
in all parts of the land to Americanize foreign-born 
citizens of recent arrival and teach them their duty 
to the country of which they are now a part. In 
recent years many of them have become thoroughly 
Americanized and take an important share in our 
political life. 

Who a Citizen Is.—The question may be asked, 
“Who are citizens?” In the first place, most of the 
boys and girls in your class are citizens of the United 
States by right of birth. If you were born in the United 
States, you are a citizen unless your father was a for¬ 
eigner and you wish to claim citizenship in a foreign 
country. If you are the son or daughter of a citizen 
you are a citizen, no matter where you were born. If 
you came with your parents to this country as a baby, 
and your father has not become a citizen, you are not 
a citizen and must be naturalized before you can vote. 
In other words, you must go through the process by 
means of which foreigners are made citizens. Any resi¬ 
dent of the United States may become a citizen if he 
280 



has not been convicted of crime. Most of the foreigners 
who enter America seek citizenship as soon as the law 
allows. A few people live in the country all their lives 
without becoming citizens, and they sometimes get into 
serious trouble by failing to acquire citizenship. In the 
World War the property of many Germans was seized 


Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 

Becoming a Citizen 

by the government, though in some cases the people so 
suffering had lived in America for years. 

The Way to Become a Citizen.—The manner in 
which a foreigner becomes a citizen is interesting. He 
first files a Declaration of Intention showing that he 
wishes to be a citizen of the United States. The next 
stage is to file the Second Paper or Petition for Natural- 
281 




ization. The last step is for the applicant to appear 
before the judge of a United States court and prove 
that he has lived in this country for five years and that 
he understands something about our government. He 
then takes the oath of allegiance, in which he solemnly 
swears to be a true and faithful citizen of this country 
and to give up allegiance to other lands. When a for¬ 
eigner becomes a citizen, his wife and children are 
made citizens by that act and thus do not need to be 
naturalized themselves. 

Club Activities 

1. Tell a story about a successful foreigner in your community or 
your nearest town. 

2. Tell a story you have read of a distinguished naturalized citizen. 

3. Find in a newspaper or magazine an incident of Ellis Island. 


282 


CHAPTER XLII 

EXPANSION OF THE UNITED STATES 

Problems: (1) To trace the growth of our country; and 
(2) to show how this growth was brought about. 

How a Continent Was Won. — “Westward the 
Course of Empire Takes Its Way,” is the title of a 
famous picture that adorns the walls of the Capitol at 
Washington. In this painting you see the hardy 
pioneers crossing the mountains—the men on horse¬ 
back and the women and children in covered wagons— 
in search of new and fertile lands toward the setting 
sun. How our country grew from thirteen states along 
the Atlantic coast until it reached the Pacific Ocean is 
a story that all American boys and girls should know. 
In this chapter you may read a few of the most stirring 
parts of this wonderful tale. 

The Country We Desired.—In the year 1800 the 
land from the Mississippi River to the Rocky Moun¬ 
tains belonged to Spain. What of the wild region 
beyond the Rockies? It was unknown to the people of 
our country. Spain also owned the city of New Orleans 
and a narrow strip of land on the eastern bank of the 
Mississippi. The fact that the mouth of the Mississippi 
was held by Spain aroused much dissatisfaction in 
Kentucky, Tennessee, and other states near the Ohio 
River; for there were no railroads in that day, and the 
only way in which the people of those states could send 
their products to the outside world was by the Missis- 
283 


sippi River. Spain could close its mouth to our com¬ 
merce at any time. This dissatisfaction grew when in 
the year 1800 Spain turned over the Louisiana Terri¬ 
tory to France. Napoleon was at the head of the 
government in France at that time, and many thought 
that he wished to conquer the world. Fearing his power, 
the people of our country demanded that something be 
done to secure the lower part of the Mississippi. 

The Louisiana Purchase.—Thomas Jefferson, who 
was President of the United States at the time, told 
Robert R. Livingston, our minister to France, to try to 
buy a part of the Louisiana Territory; so anxious was 
he to bring this about that he sent James Monroe to 
assist Livingston. To the surprise of the government, 
France agreed to sell the whole territory to us for the 
sum of $15,000,000. Napoleon realized that England 
with her great navy could easily conquer the territory, 
so he wisely decided to take this price, which was con¬ 
sidered a very large sum of money at that time (1803). 
Many people were opposed to the Louisiana Purchase, 
and claimed that Jefferson violated the Constitution in 
making it. But when we consider the great states that 
have* been formed out of the vast territory, and the 
fact that all this fertile land cost less than three cents 
an acre, we must realize that Jefferson was very wise 
in buying it. When the Louisiana Purchase treaty had 
been signed in Paris, Livingston said to Monroe, “We 
have lived long, but this is the noblest work of our 
lives.” 

The Battle of the Alamo.—At San Antonio, Texas, 
is an old Spanish mission or church, called the Alamo, 
which is famous in American history because within its 
284 


walls American frontiersmen fought one of the bravest 
battles in all the world’s history. As you doubtless 
know, Texas was once a part of Mexico, but the Ameri¬ 
can pioneers who settled the country were unwilling to 
live under Mexican rule, and began a struggle for inde¬ 
pendence. In this war the battle of the Alamo was 
fought. Santa Anna, the Mexican general, entered 
San Antonio with an army of several thousand soldiers. 
The Texan commander, Colonel Travis, decided to hold 
the Alamo, although he had only one hundred and 
eighty men. Santa Anna demanded a surrender, and, 
when Travis refused, hoisted a red flag to show that no 
mercy would be shown the defenders. Attacks were 
made by the Mexicans through the last days of Febru¬ 
ary, 1836, but the brave defenders beat the enemy off. 
Travis sent out an appeal for reenforcements. His 
courier could find only thirty-two men, but they an¬ 
swered the call, cut their way through the Mexican 
army, and entered the Alamo just three days before 
the final assault. These men could have saved their 
lives by refusing to answer Colonel Travis’s call, but 
like true Americans they went to the help of their com¬ 
rades at any cost. On March 6 the last attack was 
made. Time after time the defenders beat back the 
enemy, but finally the Mexicans entered the fort, where 
the Americans met them with bowie knives and pistols 
in a terrible hand-to-hand fight. Travis, David 
Crockett, Colonel Bowie, and all the Americans were 
slain. The monument erected to their memory bears 
this inscription: “Thermopylae had her Messenger of 
Defeat; the Alamo had None.” Texas finally freed 
herself from Mexican rule and joined the United States 
285 


in 1845. This brought on a war between Mexico and 
the United States, in which our country was successful. 
Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Nevada, and California 
were added to the United States as a result of it. 

The Forty-Niners.—You have studied in your his¬ 
tory about the discovery of gold in California in 1849, 
and you know of the great rush of people who went 
there seeking fortune. But you do not know, perhaps, 
of the hardships suffered by those gold hunters in cross¬ 
ing the prairies, the Rocky Mountains, and the deserts 
of the Far West. There were three ways in which people 
went to California in the gold rush. The first was 
around Cape Horn, the second across the Isthmus of 
Panama, and the third the overland route. It was the 
overland route that was especially full of hardships and 
dangers. The gold seekers usually gathered in large 
bands before crossing the Rockies. Sometimes there 
would be several hundred people in a party, and their 
covered wagons formed a caravan. The men rode on 
horses with guns swinging over their shoulders; usually 
at their head was a famous scout who knew all the 
trails across the vast stretch of desert between the 
Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada. This scout 
knew how to avoid hostile bands of Indians, and where 
to find streams of water; he guided the settlers on their 
perilous journey. What an interesting trip it must 
have been, not only for the brave men, but also for the 
women and children! Hundreds of Forty-niners died 
in making the journey. Many were killed by hostile 
Indians; others were lost in the deserts and died of 
thirst and starvation. The majority, however, made the 
journey in safety. They opened the Western country 
286 



Copyright, Publishers Photo Service 

(287) A Scene in the Yosemite Valley, California 




and settled California and the other Pacific coast 
states, which are now among the richest in the Union. 

The First Continental Railroad.—For many years 
after the Pacific coast was settled, the only method of 
crossing the immense region from the Rockies to the 
Sierra Nevada was by stagecoach and wagons. This 
trip took weeks and was full of peril. When railroads 
began to be built in the East, people dreamed of a rail¬ 
road that would extend from the Atlantic to the Pacific. 
This was such a vast undertaking that Congress was 
asked to help. Congress therefore passed an act in the 
year 1862 to aid in the building of a railroad and tele¬ 
graph line from the Mississippi River to the Pacific 
Ocean. The two companies organized to build the rail¬ 
road were to receive sections of land on each side of the 
roadbed, in addition to $16,000 for every mile of track 
laid. The companies employed thousands of laborers, 
and engaged in a great race, one working eastward and 
the other westward. They finally met near Salt Lake 
City in 1869. The last tie was made of California 
laurel, and a great crowd gathered to see the last spike 
driven into it. This spike was of pure gold and was 
struck by a silver hammer. There was great rejoicing 
over the completion of the railway. Altogether it cost 
the government almost a hundred million dollars and 
a strip of land ten miles wide from the Missouri River 
to the Pacific coast, but it opened the great West to 
homeseekers and made possible the building of rich and 
populous states in a wilderness once uninhabited by 
man. 

Other Territory.— In 1867 the United States ac¬ 
quired Alaska. Later the Sandwich Islands joined the 
288 


United States. Porto Rico and the Philippine Islands 
were won in the Spanish-American War. A few years 
ago the United States bought the Virgin Islands from 
Denmark. 

The Panama Canal.—No one thing shows the great¬ 
ness of America more than the building of the Panama 



Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 

Gatun Locks, Panama Canal 


Canal. Just as Thomas Jefferson is entitled to the 
gratitude of Americans for buying the Louisiana Ter¬ 
ritory, so President Roosevelt will always be remem¬ 
bered for building the Panama Canal. The French first 
tried to construct a canal across the Isthmus of Panama. 
They began work in 1879, but after spending a vast 
sum of money they failed because of inadequate 
289 






machinery, malaria, and yellow fever. The United 
States sought for years to negotiate a treaty with the 
republic of Colombia securing the right to dig a canal. 
Finally the state of Panama set up a separate govern¬ 
ment, recognized by President Roosevelt, and signed a 
treaty giving the United States a canal zone across 
the Isthmus. We paid Panama $10,000,000 for these 
rights. President Roosevelt then appointed a Canal 
Commission, whose first task was to decide upon the 
type of canal to be built. The French had tried to 
build a sea-level canal; we wisely decided upon a lock 
waterway. 

Features of the Canal.—This mighty piece of work 
was begun in 1904, and for ten years thirty-seven 
thousand workmen were busy day and night carrying 
on the work. The main features of the canal are: 

1. The Gatun Dam near the Atlantic coast. This 
great dam, one and a half miles long and a half mile 
wide at its base, was built to hold the waters of the 
Chagres River, thereby forming a lake twenty-two 
miles long. 

2. The Culebra Cut. Millions of tons of rock and 
dirt were removed by great steam shovels from this cut 
through the highest point on the canal route. There 
were frequent “slides” in the cut, which for a time baf¬ 
fled the engineers in charge; but finally the required 
depth was reached. 

3. The Locks. Six great double locks were built for 
the canal, all operated by electricity generated by the 
water of Gatun Dam. 

Makers of the Canal.—The length of the canal is 
forty miles from shore to shore, and the total cost in 
290 


money was $375,000,000. Most of the laborers were 
Chinese coolies and seasoned tropical workers from the 
West Indies. In addition to Theodore Roosevelt, two 
men acquired fame in the building of the canal— 
Major G. W. Goethals, the chief engineer in charge, and 
Colonel William C. Gorgas, who made the Canal Zone 
sanitary. It is estimated that Colonel Gorgas, by abol¬ 
ishing malaria and yellow fever from the Canal Zone, 
saved thousands of lives and many millions of dollars. 
You doubtless know the advantages of the Panama 
Canal in peace and war. Do not forget that this was 
the crowning act in the winning of a continent for our 
country and the greatest modern engineering achieve¬ 
ment of any nation. 


Club Activities 

1. Use the following questions for a review game. Add to the list 
questions which you think important: 

In the year 1800, to whom belonged all the territory from the 
Mississippi River to the Rocky Mountains now embraced 
in the United States? 

How did the United States acquire this territory? 

Against what country did Texas have to fight to gain its freedom? 
When did it become a part of the United States? 

Who were the “Forty-niners”? 

How was the first transcontinental railroad built? 

2. Describe the Panama Canal and tell how it was built. 

3. Draw a map of the United States showing the original thirteen states 
and all the accessions of territory. 


291 


CHAPTER XLIII 
AMERICA AND THE WORLD 

The Family of Nations.—Columbus made his famous 
voyage of discovery in three tiny ships, pictures of 
which you have doubtless seen in your school histories. 
It took him three months to cross the sea. In 1492 
there were no steamships or railroads, and while some 
commerce was carried on, yet each nation lived largely 
to itself. As there were no newspapers, the people of 
one nation knew little about what was happening in 
other parts of the world. Foreigners were looked upon 
with suspicion, and each country feared and distrusted 
its neighbors. 

The World Today.—How different the world is 
today! Steamships, railroads, telegraph and cable lines 
and daily newspapers have brought the people of Eng¬ 
land and China closer to us than Massachusetts was to 
Georgia in Revolutionary days. You can take up the 
morning paper and read about the leading events that 
occurred yesterday in Japan, South Africa, Argentina, 
and Poland. Each nation carries on an extensive com¬ 
merce with the rest of the world, and is, in fact, depend¬ 
ent upon other nations for many things that make life 
pleasant. To realize how extensive international com¬ 
merce is just look at the breakfast table. The sugar 
came perhaps from Cuba, the bananas from Central 
America, the coffee from Brazil, the pepper from the 
islands of Asia, the tea from China, and some of the 
292 


dishes from European countries. The dependence 9 of 
each nation upon the rest of the world is best appre¬ 
ciated during a war. At the breaking out of the World 
War Germany had merchant, ships on every sea; but 
when England blockaded her ports, the German people 
began to feel the pangs of hunger and the nations 
dependent on her for dyestuffs and other articles found 
themselves greatly inconvenienced. Almost the entire 
globe was drawn into the war, because what affects one 
part of the world affects the whole. It has come about 
that the world of today is just one large community. 
No nation can say: 44 We will live to ourselves and let 
other nations do likewise.” America is a member of 
the family of nations and, as such, must play a great 
part not only in the development of its own resources 
but in the building up of other nations. 

America the Melting Pot.—We should feel kindly 
towards other nations, because our citizens have come 
from all parts of the world. Burial services were held 
in some city over the remains of five soldiers who had 
been killed in the Argonne-Meuse battle. These boys 
had been buried in an American cemetery in France, 
where thousands of our soldiers lie, but at the request 
of their parents their remains were brought back to this 
country in a United States battleship for final burial. 
The newspapers gave the nationality of the fathers of 
these boys. One was a Greek, another an Italian, the 
third an Austrian, and the remaining two came from 
the original stock of early settlers. This incident should 
impress on us the truth that our country owes a great 
debt to the millions of immigrants who have come to 
our shores from every country of Europe. They have 
293 


done their part in developing farms, mines, and fac¬ 
tories of our land; they and their children are loyal 
Americans. 

The World War.—That America is truly a member 
of a family of nations is shown by her entrance into the 
World War. We tried to keep out of the war, but could 
not; for, as stated before, our welfare is bound up with 
that of every other nation. We sent two million sol¬ 
diers to France, and loaned billions of dollars to our 
allies, not for the purpose of gaining territory for our¬ 
selves, but to make the world 44 a free and safe place to 
live in.” We came out of the war the strongest and 
richest nation in the world, and other countries now 
look to us for help and guidance. 

American Ideals.—As an American you should be 
proud of the ideals of your country and of their world¬ 
wide influence. One American ideal is that of political 
liberty. When Thomas Jefferson penned the Decla¬ 
ration of Independence, he wrote it not for our country 
alone but for all countries. Since his day the principles 
of the Declaration have been adopted by practically the 
whole world. Kings no longer rule tyrannically over 
their subjects, but in nearly every nation the people 
have the right to decide by their ballots how the affairs 
of the country shall be conducted. Another ideal that 
America has given to the world is that of kindness 
toward other nations. This may be illustrated by our 
dealings with China. In the year 1900 the leading 
nations of Europe were seeking to dismember China by 
taking control of her territory and by obtaining ex¬ 
clusive trading rights for themselves in certain areas. 
The United States induced these nations to adopt the 
294 


“Open Door” policy, by which China should be left 
her whole territory and each nation be given right to 
trade with all parts of the country. About this time 
the Boxer Rebellion broke out, and Chinese mobs 
killed many foreigners. The great powers, including 
the United States, sent armed forces to China to put 
down the rebellion. The nations interested immediately 
demanded a huge indemnity of China. To these 



Copyright, Clinedinst 

The Pan-American Building 


demands our country objected, and the greater part of 
the indemnity finally awarded America was canceled 
by an act of Congress. So grateful did China feel 
toward us that she decided to use the canceled indem¬ 
nity to send Chinese students to attend our colleges 
and universities. 

World Peace.—A third noble ideal of America is 
that of world peace. One of the most beautiful build- 
295 










Copyright, Underwood and Underwood 

(296 ) American Troops in London 









ings in our national capital is that of the Pan-American 
Union, organized for the purpose of promoting peace, 
friendship, and commerce among all the nations of the 
Western Hemisphere. The United States, it is needless 
to say, was the leading spirit in the launching of this 
movement. In The Hague, the capital of Holland, there 
is a beautiful building called the Palace of Peace, where 
the International Court of Arbitration met to try to 
settle peaceably disputes that arise between nations. 
An American gave $1,500,000 for the erection of this 
building, and the United States has always taken a 
leading part in the efforts to secure permanent peace. 
President Wilson at the conference held at Versailles at 
the close of the World War ably advocated our ideals. 
The Armament Conference of 1921, held in Washing¬ 
ton, was a further effort to secure world peace. It is 
hoped that the American ideals of justice and fairness 
to others will prevail throughout the world. 


THE FATHERLAND 

Where is the true man’s fatherland? 

Is it where he by chance is born? 

Doth not the yearning spirit scorn 
In such scant borders to be spanned? 
Oh, yes! his fatherland must be 
As the blue heaven wide and free! 

Is it alone where freedom is, 

Where God i s God and man is man? 
Doth he not claim a broader span 
For the soul’s love of home than this? 
Oh yes! his fatherland must be 
As the blue heaven wide and free! 

297 


Where’er a human heart doth wear 
Joy’s myrtle-wreath or sorrow’s gyves, 
Where’er a human spirit strives 
After a life more true and fair, 

There is the true man’s birthplace grand, 

His is a world-wide fatherland! 

Where’er a single slave doth pine, 

Where’er one man may help another— 

Thank God for such a birthright, brother, 
That spot of earth is thine and mine! 

There is the true man’s birthright grand, 

His is a world-wide fatherland! 

James Russell Lowell. 


298 


Government of Kentucky 

Origin and Meaning of the Name 

The Blue Grass state, Kentucky, bears an Indian name. Some author¬ 
ities state that the name was derived from “Kentake,” meaning “Meadow 
Land’’; others maintain that it comes from “Kentuke,’’ meaning “River of 
Blood”; still others claim that the word is Shawnee and means “At the 
Head of a River,” 





CHAPTER XLIV 
HISTORIC KENTUCKY 

Problems: (1) To study the beginning and growth of 
Kentucky; and (2) to become acquainted with some of 
Kentucky’s great men. 

Historic Kentucky.—The history of Kentucky is ex¬ 
ceedingly interesting and picturesque. Kentucky was 
the first commonwealth west of the Alleghanies to be 
settled by Anglo-Saxons. In its early days it was the 
scene of the exploits of George Rogers Clark, Daniel 
Boone, Simon Kenton, and their fellows, who wrested 
the land from the Indians after a bloody struggle. 
After the Revolution, it filled up with settlers from 
the East, particularly Virginia, who brought with 
them the culture for which Kentuckians have always 
been noted. Until 1792, Kentucky was a part of 
Virginia; it then became the fifteenth state of the 
Union. Its population, which at that time was 
about 80,000, rose to 406,000 by 1810. Kentucky was 
for years the largest commonwealth of what was then 
called “the West.” Its famous statesman, Henry Clay, 
was for a long period the foremost figure in American 
politics. In the War between the States, Kentucky 
was divided in sympathy between North and South 
and its sons served in both armies. The battles of 
Perryville and Richmond and other engagements 
were fought on Kentucky soil. 

Great Kentuckians. —Kentucky has been famed for 
301 


political leadership. Jefferson Davis and Abraham 
Lincoln were both born within its borders within a 
year of each other. Henry Clay came to the state when 
a very young man and passed his career as a repre¬ 
sentative of Kentucky. He sat in Congress for the 
famous Ashland district, which was later represented 
by Colonel W. C. P. Breckinridge and other noted 
men. Besides Clay, John C. Breckinridge, Southern 
candidate for the United States presidency in 1860, 
Beck, Letcher, and Carlisle won great fame in public 
life. In law, Kentucky furnished Nicholas, Boyle, 
Robertson, and Harlan. In oratory, Clay, Marshall, 
Menifee, Bradley, and James made the state noted for 
eloquence. In surgery, McDowell and Brashear rank 
with the foremost names, while Fitch and Rumsey, 
inventors of the steamboat, were Kentuckians. In 
theology, Bascom, Waller, Rice, Campbell, McGarvey, 
and Broadus were eminent; in poetry, O’Hara and 
Cawein; in art, Jouett and Hart. “My Old Kentucky 
Home” is sung the length and breadth of the world, 

Capitol Buildings.—Kentucky began its existence as 
a forest commonwealth. Since 1792 it has had eight 
capitol buildings. The first was at Lexington, a two- 
story log building of the pioneers. The second was a 
frame house in Frankfort, which became the capital 
after Lexington. All the other buildings were in 
Frankfort, gradually increasing in convenience and 
expensiveness until the present fine state house was 
completed in 1910 at a cost of $1,800,000. 

State Constitutions.—Kentucky has had four consti¬ 
tutions. The first was framed in 1792, when the state 
was organized. The second was adopted in 1800; the 
302 


third in 1850; the fourth and last in 1891. There 
has been some agitation in recent years for the call¬ 
ing of a constitutional convention and the making of 
a new constitution. 


Club Activities 

1. What is Kentucky’s present population? 

2. Have a member of the class prepare and read a paper on some 
famous place in Kentucky. 

3. What famous place is near your home? 

4. Learn the name of any man from your county who helped make the 
present constitution of Kentucky. 


303 


CHAPTER XLV 


THE CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY 

Problems: (1) To learn the main provisions of the Bill 
of Rights; and (2) to show the purposes and duties of the 
legislative, executive, and judicial departments of the state 
government. 

Bill of Rights.—The Kentucky constitution resem¬ 
bles that of many of the other states of the Union. 
There is a Bill of Rights insuring the citizens certain 
fundamental rights, such as religious freedom; free 
speech; the holding of public assemblies; the acquisi¬ 
tion of property; the bearing of arms in defense of 
the commonwealth; trial by jury; free elections; 
prohibition of searching homes without warrants; 
open courts, without secret proceedings ;habeas corpus; 
subordination of the military to the civil power; and 
other rights and privileges for which the people fought 
in the Revolution. 

Legislative Department.—As in all other American 

state governments, the powers of government are 
divided into the legislative, executive, and judicial de¬ 
partments. The legislative is the “General Assembly 
of Kentucky/’ which consists of the house of repre¬ 
sentatives and the senate . The assembly meets in 

January of every other year; it may not remain in 
session more than sixty days. A majority of the 
members of each house is necessary for a quorum. 
Each house judges of the qualifications and election 
304 


of its members and makes its rules of procedure. 
Members are privileged from arrest during the session 
except for treason or felony. Members may not be 
appointed to offices created during the session until a 
year afterward. The assembly shall not pass laws to 
decrease the sinking fund for the payment of the state 
debt. No law may deal with more than one subject. 
All bills passed by the legislature, unless vetoed by 
the governor and not passed over the veto, become 
laws ninety days after adjournment, except when they 
have an emergency clause, in which case they become 
laws immediately. The assembly may not pass local 
or special acts concerning courts, juries, or changes of 
venue in trial cases; to regulate punishment for crimes; 
to affect estates left to minors or infants; to change the 
laws for conducting elections; to grant divorces; to 
change the names of persons; to provide for conducting 
elections, except in the case of newly-created counties; 
to provide for the protection of fish and game; to 
regulate labor, trade, mining or manufacturing; to 
locate or change county seats; to provide for the man¬ 
agement of common schools, and in certain other cases. 
In all these, the laws must be common to the state. 

Executive Department.—The governor is the chief 
officer of the state. He is elected for four years and 
is then ineligible for reelection for four years. He 
must be thirty years of age and have resided in Ken¬ 
tucky for six years before election. The lieutenant- 
governor must have the same qualifications as the 
governor. In case the governor dies, resigns or is 
removed, he succeeds to the office. The treasurer, 
auditor of public accounts, commissioner of agriculture, 
305 


labor and statistics, secretary of state, attorney-general, 
superintendent of public instruction, and cleric of the 
Court of Appeals are elected at the same time as the 
governor and for the same term. 

Judicial Department.—The senate sits as a court in 
the impeachment of the governor and the other state 
officers for violation of the laws. The Court of Ap¬ 
peals is the highest tribunal of the state. It consists 
of seven judges elected from seven districts who hold 
office for eight years. No one less than thirty-five 
years of age and who has not practiced law or served 
as a judge for eight years is eligible. The judge of 
longest service is the chief justice. This court reviews 
the decisions of lower courts and there is no appeal 
from its decisions except in cases involving United 
States laws. Circuit Courts exist in each county of 
the state. There are thirty-six of these circuits, each 
consisting of two or more counties except in three 
cases. In two of these last, a single county comprises 
a circuit. In the third, the Louisville district, there 
are several courts of chancery and of common pleas, 
and a criminal court in place of a single court. Judges 
of Circuit Courts must be not less than thirty-five years 
old and have been citizens of the state for Iwo years 
preceding election. Three terms at least are held in 
each Circuit Court each year. This court is the prin¬ 
cipal trial court; the majority of cases come before it. 
A commonwealth 9 s attorney cares for the state’s interest 
in each district. There are other and lower courts. 
Each county has its County Court, with a county judge, 
for the trial of small cases. Counties also have Quarterly 
Courts, presided over by the county judge. Counties 
306 


are divided into districts, each one of which elects a 
justice of the peace or magistrate; no county may have 
less than three or more than eight magisterial districts. 
Each justice conducts a Justice’s Court, which tries 
civil cases in which no more than $100 is involved as 
well as misdemeanors. The justices of a county, with 
the county judge presiding, form the Fiscal Court, 
which fixes the rate of taxation for the county and 
appropriates money for public purposes. Some coun¬ 
ties elect commissioners for the Fiscal Court. The 
cities and towns have Police Courts, which exercise 
much the same powers as Justices’ Courts do in the 
counties. 

Club Activities 

1. Find out how we obtained the liberties guaranteed to us in the 
Bill of Rights. 

2. Look up in an English history Magna Carta; habeas corpus; trial 

by jury. 

3. Find out when the Kentucky legislature meets, and learn the 
names of the senator and representative from your county or district. 

4. If possible make a trip to Frankfort while the Legislature is in 
session. 

5. Write to your senator or representative to send you a copy of a 
bill before the legislature. 

6. Find out the names of executive officers of the state. 

7. Learn the names of the members of the Court of Appeals. 


307 


CHAPTER XLVI 

THE CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY (Continued) 

Problems: (1) To find out who has the right to vote in 
Kentucky; (2) to study the government of the cities, towns, 
and counties; (3) to study the educational system; and 
(4) to study the state’s system of taxation. 

Suffrage.—Every citizen of the United States who 
has resided in the state one year and in a county or 
city six months and in the precinct in which he offers 
to vote sixty days has the right of suffrage, unless he is 
among those specially excepted. Persons convicted 
of treason, felony or bribery; persons under confine¬ 
ment for a penal offense; and idiots and insane persons 
are excluded from voting. The general assembly makes 
the laws for registering voters and conducting elections. 
It is somewhat limited by the provisions of the constitu¬ 
tion. No more than one election shall be held in the 
state, or in a county or town, in a year unless otherwise 
provided by the constitution. This is to prevent too 
frequent elections. The general assembly passes laws 
for regulating voting, ascertaining the result of elections, 
making returns, and issuing certificates of election. 
Vacancies in elective offices are filled by appointment 
or election, as is provided in the constitution. 

Cities and Towns.—Cities and towns are divided 
into six classes. All municipal corporations of the 
same class possess the same powers and are subject 
to the same restrictions. Cities of the first class have 
308 


Consecutive NV 226 


Name. 


Addrea. 




Democratic Party 

For Governor 
William Jason Fields . 


□ 


For Lieutenant Governor 

.. □ 


Henry H. Denhardt. 


For Secretary Of Slate 
Emma Guy Cromwell.. .. □ 
For Attorney-General 
Frank E. Daugherty.. □ 

For Auditor Of Public Account* 
W. H. Shank*. .□ 

For Treasurer 

Edward B. Dish man.. .. □ 

For Snpyrjntrndcnt Of Public 
Instruction 


McHenry Ehoada. 


□ 


For Coramiaeloner Of Agricul¬ 
ture. Labor and Statistics 


Oct! Coleman 


□ 


For Clerk O i Court Of Appeals 
Jnha A. Gocxlman. □ 

For Ratinted C oen dim tooer 
Ciifton B. Gross.. . □ 


For 

Via. B. Artery 


Utive 


□ 


For Circuit Judge ^^ 
Bn, G W Ilhams □ 



Republican Party 

For Governor 

Chaa. I. Dawson. □ 


For Lieutenant Governor 


Ellerbe W. Carter.. 


n 


Fur Secretary Of State 
Eleanor Hunt Wickliffe. □ 
For Attorney-General 
Monroe Fields,. . □ 

For Auditor Of Public Acco unts 
Jas. A. Wallace. □ 


For Treasurer 

F. M. McCain.. 


□ 


For Superintendent Of Public 
Instruction 


W. L. Jayne. 


□ 


For Commissioner Of Agricul¬ 
ture. Labor and Statistics 


Lewis Lebus. 


□ 


For Clerk Court Of Appeal* 
John Asher.. □ 

For Railroad Commtaaroner 
Ike Wilder.. __□ 

For Circuit Judge 
H. Clay Howard.. □ 


Consecutive 226 


Name. 


Address. 



Farmer-Iabor Party 

For Governor 

Wm. S. DeMuth. □ 

For Lieutenant Governor 
AHie H. Lee. . . □ 

For Secretary Of State 
Emma Saurer. . □ 


Y/ii&k 



For Treasurer 

J. Q. Jones. . 


□ 


For Commissioner Of Agricul¬ 
ture. Labor and Statbtlco_ 

Carr Hawkins. .. 


For Clerk Court Of Appeals 
Chaa. R. Bell. o 


Socialist Party 

For Governor 

M. A. Brinkman.. .. 


.□ 


For Lieutenant Governor 
Wm. Catton. o 


For Secretary Of 

State 

□ 

Ed. Lowe. 

For Auditor Of Public Accounts 

R. C. Albrecht. 

U 

For Superintendent Of Public 

Instruction 

.□ 

J. L. Wrather. 

For Commissioner Of 

Agricul- 

turs. Labor and Statistics 

J. D. Bradley. 

□ 

For Clerk Court Of Appeal* 

W A. Sandefer. . 

u 


For Railroad Comminaiooer 
Frank Smith. □ 




Circcit Jodft 

H. Clay Ho ward. □ 


Constitutional Ai 

No. I. 

Are you in favor of 
ing Section 146 of th* State 
Constitution, conferring upon 
both men and women the right 
to vote, subject to the soma re¬ 
striction*. limitations and ex¬ 
ceptions as now provided for 
men? 


Yu. 

Nu. 


□ 

□ 


Ballot for a State Election 

In order to vote the complete ticket of a party, the voter makes a 
cross with a pencil in the large circle. In order to vote for various candidates, 
the voter makes a mark in the small square after the name of each candidate 
for whom he votes. 


309 


























































100,000 or more population: Louisville is the only city 
of this class. It has many governing bodies not found 
elsewhere in the state. Cities of the second class have 
less than 100,000 and more than 20,000 population. 
These cities have a commission form of government, 
under a mayor and board of control. Cities ranging 
in population from 20,000 to 8,000 are in the third 
class. Cities of the fourth class have less than 8,000 
and more than 3,000 inhabitants. Fifth-class cities 
have from 3,000 to 1,000 people. Towns and villages 
have less than 1,000 population and do not possess 
quite the same municipal rights as larger places. 

The mayor and police judges are elected, except 
that these officers in cities and towns of the fourth, 
fifth, and sixth classes may be appointed if it is so 
provided. No person may be a member of the legisla¬ 
ture and at the same time hold a city or county office. 

Counties.—The principal sub-divisions of the state 
are the counties. No county of less than four hun¬ 
dred square miles shall be created. A county may be 
formed from another county when a majority of the 
voters of the county desire it. The principal officers 
of the county are the sheriff , the judge , the clerk , the 
attorney , the road engineer , the surveyor , the tax commis¬ 
sioner , the coroner , the circuit clerk, and the jailer. 
They all have important duties. In addition, there 
are other officials and boards. Some of these are 
appointed; others are elected by the county districts, 
as is the county board of education. The sheriff ap¬ 
points his deputies to assist him in his work, which 
consists in executing the laws, arresting criminals, and 
collecting state and county taxes. 

310 


Education.—There is an efficient system of common 
schools provided for by the legislature. Each county 
is entitled to a share of the school fund in proportion 
to the number of its school children. No distinction 
is made, in distributing the school funds, on account 
of race or color; separate schools for white and colored 
children are maintained. No portion of the tax for 
educational purposes shall be used for denominational 
schools: common education must be non-sectarian. 

Taxation.—The state derives its revenue from 
direct taxation. Property used for public purposes, 
churches, charitable institutions, and educational insti¬ 
tutions not deriving private gain, and public libraries 
are exempt from taxation. The general assembly levies 
an annual tax which must be uniform on all property 
subject to taxation within the limits of the common¬ 
wealth. All property not exempt from taxation is 
assessed at a fair cash value, or as nearly so as possible. 
The general assembly may authorize the counties and 
cities to levy a poll tax not exceeding a dollar and a 
half a head. The general assembly does not impose 
taxes for local purposes, but has the power to confer 
this right on local governments, county, city, and town. 
The general assembly collects license fees on franchises, 
trades, and professions and may confer on local govern¬ 
ments the power to lay such license taxes. 

The tax rate of cities, towns, counties, and taxing 
districts, for other than school purposes, shall not at 
any time exceed the following rate on the value of tax¬ 
able property: for all towns and cities having a popula¬ 
tion of fifteen thousand or more, one dollar and fifty 
cents on the hundred dollars; for all towns having less 
311 


than fifteen thousand and not less than ten thousand, 
one dollar on the hundred dollars; for all towns and 
cities having less than ten thousand, seventy cents on 
the hundred dollars; and counties and taxing districts, 
fifty cents on the hundred dollars. This tax rate might 
be increased, however, to enable a city, town, county 
or taxing district to pay the interest on and provide 
a sinking fund for the payment of debts contracted 
before the adoption of the constitution. 

Club Activities 

1. Find out the nearest voting booth to your home and learn the 
duties of the election officers. 

2. Have the class conduct an election of county officers, with certain 
members of the class acting as election officers. 

3. Find out the names of the county officers of the county in which 
you live. Have the class visit the courthouse and meet these officers. 

4. If you live in a town or city, find out the names of the most impor¬ 
tant officers of your municipal government. 

5. Find out the principal sources of revenue the state has. Learn 
the rate of taxation for school purposes in your county. 


312 


CHAPTER XLVII 


THE CONSTITUTION OF KENTUCKY (Continued) 

Problems: (1) To find out the provisions of the constitu¬ 
tion governing corporations, railroads, and the state militia; 
and (2) to study the mode by which the constitution may be 
amended and learn the important amendments. 

Corporations.—Corporations are associations of 
men, generally for business purposes. They are not 
partnership concerns in the ordinary sense. A cor¬ 
poration usually issues stock and the stockholders are 
not liable for its debts in case of failure. Corporations 
are organized under the laws of Kentucky. No corpora¬ 
tion may engage in business other than that expressly 
provided by its charter, nor shall it hold real estate not 
needed for carrying on its business for a longer per¬ 
iod than five years under penalty of having the property 
forfeited by the state. Corporations formed under 
Kentucky laws must have one or more places of business 
within the state. Transportation by railroad, steam¬ 
boat or other common carrier shall be so regulated as 
to prevent unjust discrimination; pools or combinations 
organized to depreciate the price of articles below their 
real value or to raise the price of articles above their 
value are forbidden. The general assembly shall pro¬ 
vide for the forfeiture of the charters of corporations 
guilty of abuse or misuse of their corporate powers or 
whenever such corporations become injurious to the 
welfare of the commonwealth. 

313 


Railroads.—A railroad commission , composed of 
three persons, supervises the railroads doing business 
in the state. These commissioners are elected from 
three districts into which the state is divided for the 
purpose. No railroad may engage in any other busi¬ 
ness than that of common carrier, or lease or acquire 
mines, factories, and timber, unless such procedure is 
necessary to its proper business. Rolling stock and 
other movable property belonging to railways are con¬ 
sidered personal property and are liable to sale for 
failure to pay taxes, as is other property. All com¬ 
mon carriers shall make uniform charges and shall 
have the same method of payment. Railways must 
allow the tracks of other companies to cross them at 
convenient points. The punishment for violation of 
these regulations is a fine of $1,000 for the first offense, 
$5,000 for the second, and forfeiture of charter, fran¬ 
chises, and privileges for the third. 

Militia.—The militia of Kentucky consists of all 
able-bodied men between the ages of eighteen and 
forty-five years not exempted by national or state 
law. The organization and equipment of the troops 
shall conform as far as possible to that of the United 
States army. All militia officers not appointed are 
elected by the members of their companies, battalions 
or regiments for terms not exceeding four years. 
The governor appoints the adjutant-general and other 
staff officers. The general assembly makes provision 
for the safe-keeping of arms and military records 
and relics. 

General Provisions.—Lotteries and gift enterprises 
are forbidden. Treason against the commonwealth 
314 


consists only of levying war against it and giving aid 
and comfort to its enemies. 

No money shall be drawn from the state treasury 
except in pursuance of appropriations, and a regular 
statement of receipts and expenditures shall be pub¬ 
lished annually. 

The general assembly directs in what manner and 
in what courts suits may be brought against the 
commonwealth. 

REVISION OF THE CONSTITUTION 

Mode.—The constitution of Kentucky may be 
changed if an amendment is proposed in either house 
of the general assembly at a regular session, and 
agreed to by three fifths of the members of both 
houses. The proposed amendment shall then be sub¬ 
mitted to the voters of the state, and to pass must 
have a majority of the votes cast. No more than two 
amendments shall be voted upon at any one time, nor 
shall the same amendment be again submitted within 
five years of a rejection. A convention may be held for 
the purpose of revising the constitution, provided that 
the question has been before two sessions of the gen¬ 
eral assembly. The delegates to such a convention 
must be elected according to law. The convention 
shall consist of as many delegates as there are mem¬ 
bers of the house of representatives, and the delegates 
shall have the same qualifications and be elected from 
the same districts as representatives. 

Amendments.—No. 1. Adopted in 1902. By this, 
the general assembly shall not impose taxes for the 
purpose of any county, city, town or other municipal 
corporation, but may by general laws confer on the 
315 


proper authorities thereof the power to assess and 
collect such taxes. 

No. 2. Adopted in 1909. By this, the credit of 
the commonwealth may be given, pledged, or loaned 
to any county of the commonwealth for public road 
purposes. 

No. 3. Adopted in 1915. By this, the general as¬ 
sembly shall have power to divide property into 
classes and to determine what class or classes of 
property shall be subject to local taxation. 

No. 4. Adopted in 1915. By this, the common¬ 
wealth of Kentucky may use convict labor outside the 
walls of the penitentiary for road and bridge work 
and work on the state farms. 

No. 5. Adopted in 1917. By this, no railroad, 
telegraph, telephone, bridge or common carrier com¬ 
pany shall consolidate its capital stock, franchises or 
property with any other competing line or structure 
without first having the consent of the railroad com¬ 
mission or such other state commission as has control 
of such matters. 

No. 6. Adopted in 1919. By this, judges of the 
county court, justices of peace, sheriffs, coroners, 
surveyors, jailers, assessors, county attorneys, and 
constables shall be subject to indictment and prosecu¬ 
tion for criminal misconduct in office or willful neglect 
in discharge of official duties. 

No. 7. Adopted in 1919. By this, the manufacture, 
sale or transportation of spirituous, vinous, malt or 
other intoxicating liquors, except for sacramental, 
medical, scientific or mechanical purposes, in the com¬ 
monwealth of Kentucky is prohibited. 

316 




Club Activities 

1. Have members of the class prepare lists of some of the corpora¬ 
tions in the state. 

2. Have the class learn the names of the important railroad systems 
operating in the state. 

3. Have a member of the class prepare a paper on the subject: “What 
railroads have meant in the development of Kentucky. ” 

4. Have a member of the class write to the adjutant-general of the 
state and ask him the present military strength of Kentucky and the head¬ 
quarters of the different regiments. 

5. Find out if the militia has recently been used to quell disturbances. 

6. Find out what amendments to the constitution have recently been 
proposed. 



317 


CHAPTER XLVIII 
KENTUCKY’S ELECTIVE OFFICERS 

Problems: (1) To learn the names and the duties of 
Kentucky’s elective officers; and (2) to learn the names and 
location of Kentucky’s public institutions. 

Governor.—The governor is the head of the execu¬ 
tive department of the government and his principal 
duty is to see that the laws are carried out. He has 
the power of appointment to a number of offices. He 
may veto bills passed by the legislature and such bills 
do not become laws unless passed by a majority of 
both houses of the legislature over his veto. He has 
the right to pardon criminals and commute sentences. 
His salary is $6,500 and the use of a mansion as a 
residence. 

Lieutenant-Governor.—This officer is president of the 
senate. He succeeds to the governorship on the death, 
resignation or disability of the governor. His salary 
is $10 a day during the session of the assembly. 

Secretary of State.—He keeps a register of the of¬ 
ficial acts of the governor and attests them. He also 
furnishes papers and vouchers relative to these on de¬ 
mand of the legislature. Important records are in his 
keeping. His salary is $4,000. 

Attorney-General.—He must have been a lawyer for 
eight years before his election. He is at the head of 
the department of justice and has several assistants. 
He advises the governor and other officers on legal 
318 


matters and represents the state in suits. His salary 
is $4,000. 

Auditor of Public Accounts.—The auditor audits the 
books of the various departments of state and handles 
funds. His duties are broad and important; he has a 
number of special clerks under him. His salary is 
$3,600. 

Treasurer.—The treasurer pays out the money ap¬ 
propriated by the assembly. His salary is $3,600. 

Superintendent of Public Instruction.—This official 
is at the head of the public school system of the state. 
His duty is to see that schools are properly managed, 
that teachers are qualified, that courses of study are 
conducted, and that the money for school use is rightly 
distributed. His salary is $4,000. Under this depart¬ 
ment are the state board of education , state board of 
examiners , state school supervisors , school inspectors , 
state vocational education board. 

Commissioner of Agriculture, Labor and Statistics. 
—He promotes the agricultural interests of the state, 
sees that the laws in regard to labor are carried out, 
and compiles statistics of the resources and affairs of 
the state. His salary is $4,000. 

Clerk of Court of Appeals.—He keeps the records of 
the Court of Appeals and performs the other duties 
of a regular clerk of a court of law. His salary is 
$4,000. 

Club Activities 

1. If possible, take the class through the capitol. 

2. Have different members of the class make oral reports on the visit 
to the state officers. 

3. Invite citizens of the community to talk to your class about the 
state institutions. 


319 


CHAPTER XLIX 

STATE APPOINTIVE OFFICERS 

Problems: (1) To learn the names and the duties of the 
state appointive officers; and (2) to learn the names and loca¬ 
tion of Kentucky’s state institutions. 

Banking Commissioner.—This official examines into 
the condition of banks doing business under the state 
laws. He sees that banks keep the law and investigates 
their solvency. His salary is $3,600. 

Inspector and Examiner.—The asylums, prisons, and 
charitable institutions are under the supervision of 
this official, who examines into their condition and 
sees that they are properly conducted. His salary is 
$3,000. 

Geologist.—The state geologist makes surveys of 
the mineral resources of the state and publishes in¬ 
formation concerning them. His salary is $3,000. 

Librarian.—The state librarian has charge of the 
state library at Frankfort. His salary is $1,800. 

Adjutant-General.—He supervises the militia and 
sees that it is in efficient condition for service. The 
armories and arsenals of the state are in his charge. 
His salary is $3,000. 

Board of Agriculture.—This body, consisting of nine 
members, was created for the purpose of promoting 
agriculture. The salary is $5 a day for each member 
while the board is in session. 

Insurance Commissioner.—This officer is head of the 
320 


insurance commission, which includes two other mem¬ 
bers. The commission supervises insurance companies 
doing business in the state. The salary of members is 
$ 3 , 000 . 

Other Departments and Boards.—Other depart¬ 
ments and boards are the department of fire prevention 
and rates, the live stock sanitary board, Confederate pen¬ 
sion department, department of mines, department of 
state roads and highways , state custodian, superintendent 
of public printing, sinking fund commission, froard of 
charities and corrections, board of dental examiners, 
board of election commissioners, board of health, board of 
accountancy, workmen s compensation board, council of 
national defense, board of bar examiners, game and fish 
commission, library commission, tax commission , auto¬ 
mobile department. Old Kentucky home commission. 

State Institutions.—The following educational, penal, 
and charitable institutions are maintained by the state: 
Kentucky School for the Deaf, Danville. 

Kentucky School for the Blind, Louisville. 

Kentucky Confederate Home, Pewee Valley. 

Kentucky Children’s Home Society, Lyndon. 

Kentucky Home Society for Colored Children, Louis¬ 
ville. 

State University, Lexington. 

Eastern State Normal School and Teachers’ College, 
Richmond. 

Western State Normal School and Teachers’ College, 
Bowling Green. 

Kentucky Normal and Industrial Institute for Colored 
Persons, Frankfort. 

Kentucky Feeble-Minded Institute, Frankfort. 

321 


Kentucky School of Reform, Greendale. 

Murray State Normal School, Murray. 

Morehead State Normal School, Morehead. 

State Reformatory, Frankfort. 

State Penitentiary, Eddyville. 

Eastern State Hospital, Lexington. 

Western State Hospital, Hopkinsville. 

Central State Hospital, Lakeland. 

Club Activities 

1. If possible, take the class to the state capitol and have them visit 
the different offices. 

2. Supply the children with state maps, which can be obtained from 
the state railroad department, and have them locate the different state 
institutions on the map. 

3. Have citizens of the community talk to the children about the state 
institutions. 

4. Form History and Civics Clubs in the school and let them visit 
places of interest and make reports to the class. 

5. Get from the departments of state the literature that will explain 
many governmental activities. 

6. Write the Filson Club of Louisville for interesting historical in¬ 
formation. 


322 


CHAPTER L 
KENTUCKY SCHOOLS 

Problems: (1) To learn the service rendered the schools 
by the state department of education; and (2) to become 
acquainted with the growth and development of the higher 
institutions of learning in the state. 

Board of Education.—The public schools of Ken¬ 
tucky have made rapid progress in recent years under 
a good system of administration. The superintendent 
of public instruction is the head of the system. The 
state board of education , which has general supervisory 
power, is composed of the superintendent, the secretary 
of state, and the attorney-general. The board of exam¬ 
iners is made up of the superintendent and two educators 
appointed by him. The board of vocational education 
has charge of the vocational work under the direction 
of a vocational supervisor. 

Other Activities.—There are also supervisors of 
music, home economics, high schools, rural schools, 
certification, teacher training, and agriculture. Thus, 
all forms of public education are carefully supervised 
and tested. The federal aid work of county agents 
and home demonstration agents is under the direction 
of the State University. The federal aid work of 
agricultural teachers in rural high schools is directed 
by the state supervisor of agriculture. Industrial 
education, part-time schools, continuation schools, and 
adult evening schools are for the most part directed 
by the supervisor of industrial work . The county school 
323 


system is under the direction of a county board of 
education. This board elects the county superin¬ 
tendent. City school systems and graded schools are 
conducted by boards elected for the purpose. All 
teachers in public schools must have proper certificates 
of training. The schools are free to all children between 
the ages of seven and eighteen. 

Improvements.—Probably the most noteworthy im¬ 
provement in the public education of Kentucky in 
recent years is the growth and development of the State 
University and of the Eastern Normal School and 
Teachers’ College and the Western Normal School and 
Teachers’ College. These schools now rank with the best 
in the country. Two more normal schools have opened, 
one at Murray and the other at Morehead. Consoli¬ 
dation of numerous small rural schools has improved 
educational conditions greatly and is putting new life 
into agricultural communities. The summer normal 
schools in the various counties have done much to de¬ 
velop and broaden teachers. Georgetown College con¬ 
ducts a summer quarter open to teachers. Beyond 
doubt, education is making great strides in Kentucky. 

Club Activities 

1. Have one or more persons from the state department of education 
visit the school and talk to the children about the department. 

2. Have citizens in the community visit the school and talk to the 
children about the higher institutions of learning. 

3. Have the pupils collect pictures of the higher institutions illustrating 
their growth. 

4. Have the children visit institutions of learning—a consolidated 
school, a rural high school—and make reports to the class on the visits. 

5. Supply the pupils with county maps and have them locate the 
schools. 

6. Supply the children with state maps and have them locate schools. 

324 


CHAPTER LI 
KENTUCKY HIGHWAYS 

Problems: (1) To learn why some roads in a county are 
better than others; (2) to learn who are responsible for the 
roads being good or bad; (3) to learn the source of the road 
money and the use that is made of it; and (4) to learn the 
relation of the nation and the state to the roads that are near 
your home. 

Highway Commission. —The general assembly of 
1920 passed a new road law which means much to the 
future of the state. This law created a highway com¬ 
mission, composed of four members appointed by the 
governor from the two main political parties. It is 
the duty of the commission to make a detailed in¬ 
vestigation of the whole matter of road and bridge 
building and maintenance, with a view to outlining a 
system of highway construction that may best meet 
the needs of the people. In accordance with this 
design, the commission has formed an extensive plan 
of road building which is now being carried out. 

Chief Officer. —The chief officer of the department 
of state roads and highways is the highway engineer. 
He is appointed by the commission for four years, 
must be not less than thirty years old and a graduate 
in civil engineering of some reputable college or techni¬ 
cal school, and shall have not less than five years’ 
experience in civil and road engineering. His salary is 
$5,000. 

Road Laws. —This 1920 law established a primary 
325 


system of highways which gives to each county at least 
one main thoroughfare. Federal aid is accepted in road¬ 
building. State and federal funds appropriated for road 
construction shall be used for this purpose until the entire 


Where the Road Fund 
Comes From 

*4 

™ / rr at 

<> * 

%.% /&* ^ ,, 
s. Jr ^jra*\ 

f Federal AicN& 

[Apportionment 

28 . 98 % /Another souncesl 

O.679o 

'Motor L icense Tax, 
36 . 14 % 


Where the Road Fund 
Goes 



For Fiscal Year 1921-1922 


How the State Tax 
Dollar Was Spent in 
1921 and 1922 


system of highways is com¬ 
pleted. It is estimated that 
$50,000,000 will be sufficient 
to complete the primary sys¬ 
tem of highways without in¬ 
crease of taxation. As auto¬ 
mobile owners are responsible 
in large measure for the nation¬ 
wide movement for good roads 
and profit by them, it is just 
that they should bear a share 
of the cost of construction and maintenance. Taxes 
derived from motor licenses and the sale of gasoline 
furnished 44 per cent of the money spent on such im¬ 
proved roads as have already been built. If the part of 
the state-wide taxation paid by automobile owners were 

326 










added, it would be shown that these owners are paying 
more than one-half of all money expended for road con¬ 
struction and maintenance in Kentucky. 

Future of Roads.—Kentucky has good road laws 
and good motor vehicle laws, and, if the present policies 
are pursued, in a few years we shall have a system of 
state roads of which we shall all be proud and which 
will mean much to the economic interests of the state. 
Every one should endeavor to use the roads unselfishly 
and intelligently and help take care of them. Feel that 
they are partly yours and use them as you would your 
own property. 

FEDERAL AID FUNDS—KENTUCKY ALLOTMENTS 


Year ending 
July 1 

1917. $97,471 91 

1918, act 1916, appropriated $25,000,000. 194,943 82 

1919. 292,984 62 

1919, act 1919, appropriated $200,000,000. . . . 976,865 18 

1920, act 1916. 390,746 07 

1920, act 1919. 1,465,297 76 

1921, act 1916. 487,938 86 

1921, act 1919. 1,465,297 75 


Total.$5,371,545 97 

1922, available November 9, 1921. $472,492 89 

1922, available January 1, 1922. 944,785 79 

1923 944,785 79 

1924 . 1,228,125 29 


Total.$8,961,735 73 


Under the seven per cent provision of the amended 
federal aid act, a proposed scheme of Federal aid 
roads was outlined by the state highway department 
327 

















and submitted to the Bureau of Roads at Washington. 
With a few minor changes, the suggested scheme was 
accepted by the federal authorities. 

It has been estimated that the total length of 
federal aid roads in Kentucky will, under the present 
plan, reach 3,250 miles. It must be borne in mind, 
however, that changes in location from existing routes 
may very materially change this mileage. From in¬ 
formation secured a year after the federal system had 
been outlined, it appears that, when constructed, the 
length of the roads will fall short of the estimated 
3,250 miles. 

As there are no less than 53,000 miles of road in 
the state, it will be possible to increase the total length 
of the improved system approximately to 3,700 miles, 
under the seven per cent provision of the federal act. 

Club Activities 

1. Take the class to see one of the national highways. 

2. Supply each pupil with a state road map. You can get them from 
the state department of roads. 

3. Let the class make drawings showing the source and use of the 
road funds. 

4. Let members of the class describe the roads near their homes. 

5. Have members of the class collect some pictures of good roads. 


APPENDIX 

I 

SUGGESTIONS TO TEACHERS 

The familiar maxim, “Learn to do by doing,” should 
probably be applied to the subject of civics more than to 
any other study. A dry question-and-answer study of the 
subject brings little result. The only way for children to 
become good citizens is for them to be good citizens at home 
and in school. With this thought in view the authors have 
outlined a plan which they believe will bring about the proper 
study of citizenship. In the first chapter it is suggested that 
the class be organized as a civics club. At the end of each 
chapter certain work is assigned the club. It is expected 
that the president and the executive committee, with the aid 
of the teacher, will assign the topics or projects to com¬ 
mittees, giving each child in the class something to do. 
Below a few lessons are worked out which will help an in¬ 
experienced teacher plan other lessons. 

Organization of a Civics Club 
(See Chapter I) 
i 

This lesson should be read in class silently, the children 
following directions given by the teacher. At the end of the 
lesson, after a brief summary of the facts gained, the teacher 
may say: “We have learned how a club in another school 
was organized. Would you like to organize a similar club?” 
(A /ote is taken and the question decided in favor of the 
organization.) 

Teacher: Have you any suggestions to make? 

329 


Pupil: Committees should be appointed in the school. 
(There is a full discussion of this question.) 

Teacher: You agree that committees should be ap¬ 
pointed, and upon your suggestion I shall now appoint the 
following committees. Every child in the class will be 
appointed on some committee. 

The teacher appoints the following committees: Com¬ 
mittee on Name of Organization, Committee on Constitu¬ 
tion, Committee on Pledge, Committee on Slogans, Com¬ 
mittee on Time and Place of Meeting. These committees 
are temporary committees and their work will have been 
finished when the organization has been completed. Per¬ 
manent committees will be appointed by the officers of the 
club after organization and as the need for them is developed. 

Teacher : The boy or girl whose name appears first upon 
a committee is chairman of that committee and must be 
prepared to make the report. It is the duty of a chairman to 
call his committee together at a certain time. I would 
suggest that the committees meet in different parts of the 
room immediately after this period or at the close of school. 
I shall be at my desk ready to help you in any way if you 
wish to come to me for suggestions. It may be that some 
of you may think it advisable to wait and get aid from your 
father or mother and have another meeting. That is prob¬ 
ably a good plan. Remember that a report is expected from 
every committee when the class meets tomorrow. 

ii 

When the class meets on the second day, the teacher calls 
for the reports of the committees in the following order: 

Name of the organization 

Constitution 

Pledge. 

Slogan. 

Time and Place of Meeting. 

330 


After these reports have been received and acted on, the 
class should proceed to the election of officers. 

The teacher should now have a discussion as to the best 
way in which the newly organized club can further the study 
of civics. The children may be led to the conclusion that 
committees comprising the whole class should be appointed 
each day by the president and the teacher, to report 
on the topics or projects at the end of each lesson in the 
textbook, these reports to be given at the beginning of each 
period. 

The teacher then assigns Chapter Two for study and 
appoints committees to report on the various topics at the 
end of the chapter. After this the president confers with the 
teacher each day as to the appointment of committees. 

Community Study 
(See Chapters II and III) 

The teacher should call for the reports of the various 
committees. Each report should be followed by a full dis¬ 
cussion in which the whole class participates. The lessons 
will fail of their purpose if they merely end with a report on 
what can be done for the community. Steps should be taken 
to carry out the suggestions made. Perhaps a committee 
might be appointed to appear before the town council to 
urge the adoption of some measure for the welfare of the 
community. 

In Chapter III the teacher has a chance—in appointing 
committees to improve the school—to organize real projects 
which will probably keep several committees busy during 
the entire year. Once a week, on Friday perhaps, these 
Committees should make reports. They should make posters 
and do everything which will promote the work of their 
committees. In this way they will be live, working com¬ 
mittees. 


331 


A question is given at the end of Chapter III for class 
discussion. Of course the teacher must skillfully lead the 
children to right conclusions. The following brief outline 
may serve as a suggestion: 

Teacher: Should children receive a weekly allowance 
for chores done at home? 

Frank: I don’t think they should. My father takes care 
of me, gives me food, and sends me to school. I think it is 
my duty to do everything I am called upon to do at home 
without pay. 

Mary: I don’t agree with Frank. I have to go to my 
father for spending money. I should not have to ask him for 
a nickel every time I need one. If he would give me a regular 
allowance it would enable me to plan how to spend my 
money. 

Sarah: I agree with Mary. I know my father loses 
patience sometimes when I ask him for money. I really am 
afraid to ask him at times. It would certainly be much 
better if I knew beforehand what I am to get. 

John: Some boys and girls do not do any work at home 
at all. Should they be paid for doing nothing? 

James: One advantage of the plan is that every boy and 
girl is required to do certain things for the benefit of the 
home. I agree with the girls that the plan is a good one. 

Teacher: We will now write upon the blackboard some 
of the advantages and disadvantages of receiving a weekly 
allowance for chores done. 

Advantages 

1. It makes every child a helper in the home. 

2. It does away with the need of asking parents for 
money. 

3. It makes the child a responsible spender. 

4. It tends to promote thrift. 

332 


Disadvantages 

1. Children should feel it their duty to do chores without 
expecting a reward. 

2. In some homes there are no chores to do. 

Teacher: We will leave this question for your consider¬ 
ation until tomorrow, when we will take a written vote on it. 

The Playground—Courage and Fair Play 
(See Chapters V and VI) 

By having the pupils to work out the suggestions offered 
at the end of these chapters, the teacher will be training boys 
and girls in leadership. She should be on the alert and see 
that timid children take some part in the general activities. 
Aside from the civic value of the work, there is the good which 
comes to the school. Working committees make a live, 
dynamic school. 

Health 

(See Chapters VII, XVI, and XXX) 

That “ Charity begins at home ” is a proverb which applies 
most forcefully here. The teacher should look after the 
sanitary conditions of her school or schoolroom. She should 
see that the room is clean and well ventilated, and if she is 
in a country school she should see that the grounds are well 
kept and that sanitary conditions prevail in all outhouses. 
In her own classroom she should look carefully into the 
physical condition of her pupils, especially as to their eye¬ 
sight and hearing. 

Organize a clean-up squad for the school and for the 
streets. Perhaps the boys can secure the use of an unsightly 
vacant lot and turn it into an attractive playground, in this 
way performing two civic duties. Boys and girls may take def¬ 
inite steps toward planting flowers and having school gardens. 

In connection with the lesson in Chapter XVI, a cam- 

333 


paign against flies and mosquitoes should i .d,ugurated. 
The following outline may help in an anti-mosquito cam¬ 
paign. How to Fight the Mosquito 

1. Know all the facts concerning breeding: that mos¬ 
quitoes breed in rain barrels, guttering of houses, and in any 
standing water. Wiggletails are usually found in such 
places, and where there are wiggletails there will be mos¬ 
quitoes. 

2. Make a survey in the neighborhood to locate breeding 
places. Draw a map which shows these. (These surveys 
may be made in the winter when no active work can be done.) 

3. Learn the different methods of getting rid of the pests. 
By a simple experiment you can find out the easiest way. 
Put a mosquito netting over a glass of water which contains 
wiggletails and watch them develop. You will see that they 
come to the surface of the water to breathe. Pour oil on 
top of the water and the mosquito will die. If oil is poured 
in rain barrels and on other standing water, the mosquitoes 
will be exterminated. If the surface is too great for this 
treatment, the water should be drained. 

4. See that steps are taken to exterminate mosquitoes in 
your community. Take your map to your health officer and 
offer your services in the campaign. 

A similar campaign should be planned for the extermi¬ 
nation of flies. The children can make a survey of a block in 
the winter and locate breeding places—stables, uncovered 
garbage, compost, etc.—and take steps to have these 
removed. 

The County 
(See Chapter XI) 

Through the County Field Day, the County Fair, or 
through other county contests the teacher should arouse 
interest in county affairs. 


334 


Vocational Study 
(See Chapters XV and XXIX) 

It is not too early for children to be thinking of their 
life work, and the teacher should make this lesson a vital one. 
This is the time for vocational guidance. 

II 

MEETING OF A JUNIOR CITIZENS CLUB 

The following is a partial report of a meeting of an eighth 
grade class which had organized itself as a town meeting. 
The account is self-explanatory. It will be found very 
suggestive. 

Irvington School. 

8-B Grade. January 27, 1921. 

Margaret Cook (Mayor of Rowen): The meeting 
will please come to order. We will rise and say the oath. 

The Mayor: Will the minutes of our last meeting now 
be read? 

The Secretary: The last meeting of the citizens of 
Rowen was held in Room 9, December 17, 1920. 

The meeting, as usual, was opened with the oath. Our 
Mayor next announced that the subject for discussion was 
“Li£,ht.” Mr. Winders spoke of the advantage of electric 
light. Miss Piersol argued that gas was cheaper for light, 
giving as one advantage that it had been found in sufficient 
quantities near Rowen. The floor was open for general 
discussion. Immediately afterward a vote was taken by 
which it was decided we should use electricity from a plant 
to be built in Rowen. 

Mr. Pritchard spoke of bridges and pointed out the 
advantages of different kinds. The meeting then adjourned 
by motion. 


335 


Unfinished business was taken up at a special meeting, 
Monday, January 3, 1921. The question of a bridge was 
again introduced. Miss Layman recommended a public 
bridge, and following her Mr. Burnett spoke in favor of a 
private bridge owned by a share-selling concern. The floor 
was opened for general discussion on bridges. Following that 
a vote was taken and it was decided that we build a public 
bridge with a concrete foundation. 

Adjournment on motion. 

The Mayor: Are there any corrections of these minutes? 
If not, they will stand approved as read. 

As this is our last meeting w^e have planned a program 
showing the origin and development of the town of Rowen. 
We have with us today some of Rowen’s former citizens, to 
whom we wish to show the improvement and advancement 
of our town since they left. We have also some of Rowen’s 
future citizens with us, to whom we are leaving the town, 
and we are very glad to see so many visitors with us today. 
I have asked Miss Nordstrom to tell us the purpose of this 
town meeting and the way in which these meetings started. 
Miss Nordstrom. 

Phylis Nordstrom: I have been asked to tell you 
something about our town meetings. This town was trans¬ 
mitted to us from an 8-B class. It' is transmitted from 
one 8-B class to another, and in that way each class has 
a chance to learn how to carry on and conduct these town 
meetings. I think we have made them interesting and 
profitable. 

In planning our town we inquired of other small towns in 
the state how business is carried on. One citizen wrote to her 
aunt to find out about lights, so it is by inquiry and obser¬ 
vation that we try to make our town as modern and beautiful 
as any other town in our state. We citizens of Rowen are 
proud to say we transmit this city more beautiful than it was 

336 


transmitted to us, and we hope the incoming citizens will do 
the same thing. 

The Mayor: There were many things to be considered 
in planning this town. Miss Brenton will tell us something 
of this. 

Flora Brenton: When we began this Miss B-, our 

teacher, suggested that instead of studying civics in the 
usual way we plan a town and run it the way a small town 
is run to-day. All the pupils approved of this, so the town 
was planned and named. When it came to choosing a site, 
ten pupils were sent to survey Indiana and find a site for the 
town. After several days’ survey, a vote was taken and the 
site where Rowen now stands was chosen. There are many 
reasons for this site. One is that the soil is very fertile and 
there are maple and oak trees near it. Then Indianapolis is 
only a few hours ride, and Shelbyville only ten miles away. 

Next a name must be given to this beautiful city, and a 
committee was appointed and several names brought before 
it; and as the name “Rowen” received the most votes that 
was the name given the town. 

But a place for a city, a plan and a name is not enough; 
there must be some way by which traffic can be handled. 
The checker-board plan, which is that of most cities in the 
United States was chosen—that is, a plan with all the streets 
crossing at right angles, and with few or no diagonal streets. 
This does away with all crooked and irregular streets. 

We are glad, in transmitting Rowen, to see some pioneers 
and former citizens here, and also to see the incoming citizens. 
We know you will do your part well while running the town 
and when it comes time for you to move you will hate to 
move as much as we hate to leave today 

The Mayor: The former citizens of Rowen laid a 
good foundation for our work. Miss Gray will tell us what 
they accomplished. 


337 



Bernice Gray: Present and future citizens of Rowen: 
I shall endeavor to make you realize all the inhabitants 
before us have done to make our town what it is to-day. In 
the pioneer work the selecting of a site so conveniently near 
the interurban line was a great advantage. Then the planning 
of the streets in Rowen required great thought and skill also. 
Another aid in the development was Main Street, which was 
put in first as a gravel road. The pioneers contributed books 
for a day library, which affords better education for our 
children, and also is a great pleasure for the grown-ups. 

They established an adequate fire department consisting 
of fifty buckets, a twenty-five gallon chemical can and a 
ladder. 

All those who leave the town plan to leave it with some 
improvements, so that all former citizens will be very proud 
of their town. 

The Mayor: We have done our best to carry on the 
work so well started, and there are several improvements 
we have made since we have lived in the town. One of these 
was an arrangement for the education of our children. Miss 
Gray will tell of this. 

Bernice Gray: Citizens of Rowen; I have been asked 
to talk on a subject which ought to be of the greatest interest 
to every member of any community, and that is the question 
of schools. When we were boys and girls living in Irvington 
we used to study civics from a book called Our America , and 
in that we were told that the purpose of education is to so 
train and equip an individual that he can take care of himself, 
earn a living, and live in the fullest enjoyment possible; 
second, it should train the individual to perform his duties of 
citizenship and help manage the affairs of this city with 
intelligence. That education might occupy an important 
place, at the first meeting after the pioneers had moved into 
their new home they decided on a school. The discussion 

338 


was whether they would send their children to a consolidated 
township school two miles away, or whether they would 
establish a private school. This was a hard-fought subject 
but it was finally decided that they would send their children 
to the township school. This consolidated school is situated 
on a very beautiful piece of ground which includes many 
acres. It is made of red brick and has eleven rooms. The 
basement consists of a good shop, a very attractive gym with 
much apparatus, and also a fine swimming pool. The 
ground floor is wholly schoolrooms, and there are two grades 
to each room. The second floor has five rooms for the high 
school, and we have also sewing and cooking rooms. All 
the rooms are supplied with fine school furniture and the 
blackboards are of the best quality. The playground is 
supplied with all kinds of games and a basket-ball stand. The 
school was furnished with three wagons in which to carry the 
country children to and from school. This seems very con¬ 
venient for them. We have splendid teachers at our school. 
They not only meet the requirements of the law of Indiana 
as to scholarship, but they are especially fine. Then our 
principal, whom we all love, is Miss Koontz. 

We hope the future citizens of Rowen will enjoy this work 
as much as we have in our beautiful town of Rowen. 

The Mayor : Most of you remember the great flood that 
washed away the bridge which was put up by our former 
citizens. This was a great loss to Rowen, but we have 
already put up a new structure. Mr. Pritchard will tell us 
about this bridge. 

Harmon Pritchard: Friends, Future Citizens, and 
Citizens of Rowen: I am asked to talk about the bridge which 
we have put in since we came into the city. It is across the 
river which runs through the northwest part of town. We 
had quite a discussion whether it should be a public or a 
private bridge, but we finally decided it should be public. 

339 


We also decided, since we had just put in electric lights, that 
at present we could not afford a whole bridge, so we just put 
in a good concrete foundation with temporary sides. The 
bridge is made of the best material and by the best workmen. 
A contracting firm of Rowen put in this bridge and it is very 
beautiful. I feel sure that the future citizens of Rowen will do 
their best to finish the bridge in as fine a way as it has 
already been started. 

Miss Mason: I would like to ask the Mayor what sort 
of amusements you are planning for your people. 

The Mayor: There is a park in Rowen which is open 
every day in the summer time, and there are good amuse¬ 
ments in this park, swings and Maypoles, and the children 
go there in the summer. In the winter they have outside 
games in the schoolyard. 

Miss Mason: Do you have picture shows? 

The Mayor: Yes, we have a picture show run by Miss 
Gray. It is named the “Strand,” and they have very good 
pictures. Some are educational pictures and we enjoy them 
very much. 

Reports were presented by different pupils on the 
following subjects: lights, library, fire department, contract¬ 
ing, dairying, storekeeping and banking. 

The Mayor: If there is no further business the meeting 
is adjourned. 

Ill 

PROBLEMS AND PROJECTS 

The following lists are merely suggestive, but they 
contain details that may be worked out by the teacher: 

1. Dramatization and Pageantry. Several excellent 
dramatizations can be found in Dramatized Scenes from 
American History by Augusta Stevenson. 

a. Signing of the Mayflower Compact. 

340 


b. Second Continental Congress. (Four episodes.) 

i. Continental Congress in session. 

ii. Committee appointed to draw up Declaration. 

iii. Thomas Jefferson’s midnight inspiration. 

iv. Report of the committee. 

c. A meeting of state legislature or general assembly. 

d. A meeting of the city council. (Part of the class may 
be organized as a council and a part to represent a com¬ 
mittee appearing before the council in regard to an ordinance 
for paving streets or some other local project. 

e. A court of naturalization. The following plan may be 
used. Let the classroom represent the courtroom. The 
teacher or a pupil may act as judge and two pupils as re¬ 
porters. Applicants for naturalization may take out either 
first or second papers. 

f. Makers of the flag. A large flag should be suspended 
at the back of the stage with a girl dressed as Liberty con¬ 
cealed behind it. Pupils who have performed some act of 
service to their community pass before it and are greeted by 
the flag. 

g. Constitutional convention. Let the class represent 
the convention of 1787. Have various pupils represent the 
leading delegates, presenting in speeches the points of view 
of Washington, Franklin, Madison, and Hamilton on the 
great question at issue. 

h. The immigrant gateway. This should be a repre¬ 
sentation of the entrance of the immigrants into the United 
States and of the examination conducted by the officials of 
the immigrant service who determine their fitness to enter. 
(Reference: Reuben Greed, The Congressional Home Mission 
Society, 156 Fifth Avenue, New York City.) 

i. A cabinet meeting in Washington’s, Jackson’s, or Lin¬ 
coln’s administration. Costumes appropriate to the period 
should be used, if possible. 


341 


j. A Red Cross play. 

k. Plymouth Rock Pageant. 

2. Student organizations which exemplify the working 
of civic bodies. 

a. A town meeting. For a full stenographic report of 
such a meeting, see page 305. 

b. A meeting of a park board. 

c. A meeting of a board of health. 

d. A meeting of a board of public works. 

c. A meeting of a board of county commissioners. 

f. A meeting of a school board. 

g. A presidential election. 

h. A primary election. 

i. A self-government council. 

j. A literary society. 

k. A staff meeting of the school paper. 

l. A meeting of the directors of the school bank. 

3. Participation of pupils in adult activities. 

a. Junior Red Cross. 

b. Relief and charitable societies. 

c. Junior Chamber of Commerce. 

d. Fire prevention or clean-up campaign. As a part of 
such campaign, have each pupil appointed an inspector to 
inspect his own premises. The following blank form may be 
used: 

Fire Prevention Inspection and Pledge Card 
Pupil’s Pledge 

I pledge myself to cooperate in every way I can to make 

.a cleaner, safer, and healthier city in which to 

live. 

Name. 

Address...H 


342 





Parent’s Pledge 

I understand the serious costs to life and property from 
fire, and will do my utmost to comply with the rules for the 
prevention of fire in my own home as requested by the Fire 
Prevention Committee. 

Parent’s Name. 

You are appointed fire inspector for your home in co¬ 
operation with the -Fire Prevention Campaign. 

Make a record of your inspection by answering each of 
the following questions Yes or No. 

Is your home and yard kept clear of rubbish? . 

Are ashes always put in noncombustible containers?. 

Are all matches placed in covered metal boxes beyond 
the reach of small children?. 

Do you burn trash in noncombustible containers fitted 
with wire top? . 

Are chimneys and stoves in your home regularly exam¬ 
ined, repaired, and cleaned? . 

Have you and your parents read the fire prevention card 
and are you complying with it? . 

Do you know the location of the nearest fire-alarm 
box? . 

Are you obeying the request of the fire chief not to follow 
the Fire Department to fires? . 

4. Visits to and study of community organizations. 

a. Visit to a Boy Scout or summer camp. 

b. Visit to a public market. 

c. Visit to a water works. 

d. Visit to a gas works. 

e. Visit to an electric light and power plant. 

f. Visit to a public park. 

g. Visit to a fire station. 

h. Visit to a public library. 

343 












i. Visit to a city council meeting. 

j. Visit to a session of the state legislature. 

k. Visit to any available local factory or large retail 
establishment. 

l. Visit to a laundry. 

m. Visit to a dairy. 

n. Visit to an ice plant. 


IV 

THE TEXT OF THE CONSTITUTION 

We, the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect 
union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common 
defense, promote the general welfare,'and secure the blessings of liberty to 
ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for 
the United States of America. 

Article I 

Section I. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a 
Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House 
of Representatives. 

Section II. 1. The House of Representatives shall be composed of 
members chosen every second year by the people of the several States, and 
the electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors 
of the most numerous branch of the State legislature. 

2. No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to 
the age of twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the United 
States, and who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in 
which he shall be chosen. 

3. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the 
several States which may be included within this Union, according to their 
respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole 
number of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, 
and excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. The 
actual enumeration shall be made within three years after the first meeting 
of the Congress of the United States, and within every subsequent term of 
ten years, in such manner as they shall by law direct. The number of repre¬ 
sentatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thousand, but each State 
shall have at least one representative; and until such enumeration shall be 
made^ the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose 3; Massa- 

344 


chusetts, 8; Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, 1; Connecticut, 
5; New York, 6; New Jersey, 4; Pennsylvania, 8; Delaware, 1; Maryland, 
6; Virginia, 10; North Carolina, 5; South Carolina, 5, and Georgia, 3. 

4. When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, 
the executive authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such 
vacancies. 

5. The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other 
officers, and shall have the sole power of impeachment. 

Section III. 1. The Senate of the United States shall be composed 
of two senators from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof, for six 
years; and each senator shall have one vote. 

2. Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the 
first election, they shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. 
The seats of the senators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of 
the second year, of the second class at the expiration of the fourth year, and 
of the third class at the expiration of the sixth year, so that one-third may 
be chosen every second year; and if vacancies happen by resignation, or 
otherwise, during the recess of the legislature of any State, the executive 
thereof may make temporary appointments until the next meeting of the 
legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 

3. No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the 
age of thirty years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and 
who shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he 
shall be chosen. 

4. The Vice President of the United States shall be President of the 
Senate, but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

5. The Senate shall choose their other officers, and also a President 
pro tempore , in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise 
the office of President of the United States. 

6. The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. 
When sitting for that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When 
the President of the United States is tried, the chief justice shall preside; 
and no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of 
the members present. 

7. Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than 
to removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office 
of honor, trust or profit under the United States: but the party convicted 
shall nevertheless be liable and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and 
punishment, according to law. 

Section IV. 1. The times, places, and manner of holding elections for 
senators and renresentatives shall be prescribed in each State by the legis- 

345 


lature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by law make or alter such 
regulations, except as to the places of choosing senators. 

2. The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such 
meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law 
appoint a different day. 

Section V. 1. Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns 
and qualifications of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute 
a quorum to do business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to 
day, and may be authorized to compel the attendance of absent members, 
in such manner, and under such penalties as each House may provide. 

2. Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its 
members for disorderly behavior, and, with the concurrence of two-thirds, 
expel a member. 

3. Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, and from time 
to time publish the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment 
require secrecy; and the yeas and nays of the members of either House on 
any question shall, at the desire of one-fifth of those present, be entered on 
the journal. 

4. Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the 
consent of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other 
place than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting. 

Section VI. 1. The senators and representatives shall receive a 
compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of 
the Treasury of the United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, 
felony and breach of the peace, be privileged from arrest during their 
attendance at the session of their respective Houses, and in going to and 
returning from the same; and for any speech or debate in either House, they 
shall not be questioned in any other place. 

2. No senator or representative shall, during the time for which he was 
elected, be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United 
States, which shall have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall 
have been increased during such time; and no person holding any office 
under the United States shall be a member of either House during his 
continuance in office. 

Section VII. 1. All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the 
House of Representatives; but the Senate may propose or concur with 
amendments as on other bills. 

2. Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives 
and the Senate, shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President 
of the United States; if he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return 
it, with his objections, to that House in which it shall have originated, who 

346 


shall enter the objections at large on their journal, and proceed to reconsider 
it. If after such reconsideration, two-thirds of that House shall agree to 
pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the objections, to the other 
House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two- 
thirds of that House it shall become a law. But in all such cases the votes of 
both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the 
persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of 
each House respectively. If any bill shall not be returned by the President 
within ten days (Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to 
him, the same shall be a law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless 
the Congress by their adjournment prevent its return, in which case it shall 
not be a law. 

3. Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the 
Senate and House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question 
of adjournment) shall be presented to the President of the United States; 
and before the same shall take effect, shall be approved by him, or being 
disapproved by him, shall be repassed by two-thirds of the Senate and House 
of Representatives, according to the rules and limitations prescribed in the 
case of a bill. 

Section VIII. 1. The Congress shall have power: To lay and collect 
taxes, duties, imposts, and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the 
common defense and general welfare of the United States; but all duties, 
imposts, and excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; 

2. To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

3. To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several 
States, and with the Indian tribes; 

4. To establish a uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on 
the subject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

5. To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign eoin, and 
fix the standard of weights and measures; 

6. To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and 
current coin of the United States; 

7. To establish post offices and post roads; 

8. To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for 
limited times to authors and inventors the exclusive rights to their respective 
writings and discoveries; 

9. To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court; 

10. To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high 
seas, and offenses against the law of nations; 

11. To declare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make 
rules concerning captures on land and water; 

347 


12. To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to 
that use shall be for a longer term than two years; 

13. To provide and maintain a navy; 

14. To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and 
naval forces; 

15. To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the 
Union, suppress insurrection, and repel invasions; 

1C. To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, 
and for governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of 
the United States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment 
of the officers, and the authority of training the militia according to the 
discipline prescribed by Congress; 

17. To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such 
district (not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular 
States and the acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government 
of the United States, and to exercise like authority over all places purchased 
by the consent of the legislature of the State in which the same shall be, 
for the erection of forts, magazines, arsenals, dockyards, and other needful 
buildings; and 

18. To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying 
into execution the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this 
Constitution in the government of the United States, or in any department 
or officer thereof. 

Section IX. 1. The migration or importation of such persons as any 
of the States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited 
by the Congress prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, 
but a tax or duty may be imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten 
dollars for each person. 

2. The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, 
unless w hen in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. 

3. No bill of attainder or ex post facto law shall be passed. 

4. No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion 
to the census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 

5. No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. 

6. No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or rev¬ 
enue to the ports of one State over those of another: nor shall vessels bound 
to or from one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. 

7. No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence 
of appropriations made by law; and a regular statement and account of 
the receipts and expenditures of all public money shall be published from 
time to time. 


348 


8. No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States; and no 
person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the 
consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, 
of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State. 

Section X. 1. No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or con¬ 
federation; grant letters of marque and reprisal; coin money; emit bills 
of credit; make anything but gold and silver coin a tender in payment of 
debts; pass any bill of attainder, ex post facto law, or law impairing the 
obligation of contracts, or grant any title of nobility. 

2. No State shall, without the consent of the Congress, lay any imposts 
or duties on imports or exports, except what may be absolutely necessary 
for executing its inspection laws: and the net produce of all duties and 
imposts laid by any State on imports or exports, shall be for the use of the 
Treasury of the United States; and all such laws shall be subject to the 
revision and control of the Congress. 

3. No State shall, without the consent of Congress, lay any duty of 
tonnage, keep troops, or ships of war in time of peace, enter into any agree¬ 
ment or compact with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in 
war, unless actually invaded or in such imminent danger as will not admit of 
delay. 

Article II 

♦ 

Section I. 1. The executive power shall be vested in a President of 
the United States of America. He shall hold office during the term of four 
years, and together with the Vice President, chosen for the same term, be 
■elected, as follows: 

2. Each State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature thereof 
may direct, a number of electors, equal to the whole number of senators and 
representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; but no 
senator or representative, or person holding an office of trust or profit under 
the United States, shall be appointed an elector. 

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot 
for two persons, of whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same 
State with themselves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted 
for, and of the number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and 
certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United 
States, directed to the president of the Senate. The president of the Senate 
shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all 
the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The person having 
the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a 
majority of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more 
than one who have such majority, and have an equal number of votes, then 

349 


the House of Representatives shall immediately choose by ballot one of them 
for President; and if no person have a majority, then from the five highest 
on the list the said House shall in like manner choose the President. But in 
choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation 
from each State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of 
a member or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all 
the States shall be necessary to a choice. In every case, after the choice of 
the President, the person having the greatest number of votes of the electors 
shall be the Vice President. But if there should remain two or more who 
have equal votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice 
President. 

3. The Congress may determine the time of choosing the electors, and 
the day on which they shall give their votes; which day shall be the same 
throughout the United States. 

4. No person except a natural-born citizen, or a citizen of the United 
States, at the time of the adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to 
the office of President; neither shall any person be eligible to that office 
who shall not have attained to the age of thirty-five years, and been fourteen 
years a resident within the United States. 

5. In case of the removal of the President from office, or of his death, 
resignation, or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said 
office, the same shall devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may 
by law provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both 
of the President and Vice President, declaring what officer shall then act as 
President, and such officer shall act accordingly, until the disability be 
removed or a President shall be elected. 

6. The President shall, at stated times, receive for his services a 
compensation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during 
the period for which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive 
within that period any other emolument from the United States, or any 
of them. 

7. Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the follow¬ 
ing oath or affirmation:—“I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faith¬ 
fully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the 
best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the 
United States.” 

Section II. 1. The President shall be commander-in-chief of the army 
and navy of the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when 
called into the actual service of the United States; he may require the 
opinion, in writing, of the principal officer in each of the executive depart¬ 
ments, upon any subject relating to the duties of their respective offices, and 

350 


he shall have power to grant reprieves and pardons for ofl'en es against the 
United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

2. He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present concur; 
and he shall nominate, and, by and with the advice and consent of the 
Senate, shall appoint ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, 
judges of the Supreme Court, and all other officers of the United States, 
whose appointments are not herein otherwise provided for, and which shall 
be established by law; but the Congress may by law vest the appointment of 
such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President alone, in the 
courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

3. The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may 
happen during the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which 
shall expire at the end of their next session. 

Section III. He shall from time to time give to the Congress in¬ 
formation of the state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration 
such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on 
extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case 
of disagreement between them with respect to the time of adjournment, he 
may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive 
ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be 
faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States. 

Section IV. The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the 
United States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and con¬ 
viction of, treason, bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

Article III 

Section I. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested 
in one Supreme Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from 
time to time ordain and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and 
inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior and shall, at 
stated times, receive for their services, a compensation which shall not be 
diminished during their continuance in office. 

Section II. 1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law 
and equity, arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, 
and treaties made, or which shall be made, under their authority;—to all 
cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls;—to all 
cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction;—to controversies to which the 
United States shall be a party;—to controversies between two or more 
States—between a State and citizens of another State;—between citizens of 
different States,—between citizens of the same State claiming lands under 

351 


grants of different States, and between a State, or the citizens thereof, and 
foreign States, citizens or subjects. 

2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, 
and those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have 
original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme 
Court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such 
exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make. 

3. The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by 
jury; and such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall 
have been committed; but when not committed within any State, the trial 
shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed. 

Section III. 1. Treason against the United States, shall consist only 
in levying war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them 
aid and comfort. No person shall be convicted of tieason unless on the 
testimony of two witnesses to the same overt act, or on confession in open 
court. 

2. The Congress shall have power to declare the punishment of treason, 
but no attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture 
except during the life of the person attainted. 

Article IV 

Section I. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the 
public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the 
Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, 
records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

Section II. 1. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privi¬ 
leges and immunities of citizens in the several States. 

2. A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, 
who shall flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on demand 
of the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up 
to be removed to the State having jurisdiction of the crime. 

3. No person held to service or labor in one State, under the laws 
thereof, escaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation 
therein, be discharged from such service or labor, but shall be delivered up 
on claim of the party to whom such service or labor may be due. 

Section III. 1. New States may be admitted by the Congress into 
this Union; but no new State shall be formed or erected within the juris¬ 
diction of any other State; nor any State be formed by the junction of two 
or more States, or parts of States, without the consent of the legislatures of 
the States concerned as well as of the Congress. 

2. The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful 

3 52 


fules and regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging 
to the United States; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed 
as to prejudice any claims of the United States, or of any particular State. 

Section IV. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this 
Union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them 
against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive 
(when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence. 

Article V 

The Congress, whenever two-thirds of both Houses shall deem it 
necessary, shall propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the appli¬ 
cation of the legislatures of two-thirds of the several States, shall call a 
convention for proposing amendments, which, in either case, shall be valid 
to all intents and purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by 
the legislatures of three-fourths of the several States, or by conventions in 
three-fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratification may be 
proposed by the Congress: Provided that no amendment which may be 
made prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any 
manner affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first 
article; and that no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal 
suffrage in the Senate. 

Article VI 

1. All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the 
adoption of this Constitution shall be as valid against the United States 
under this Constitution, as under the Confederation. 

2. This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall 
be made in pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be 
made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law 
of the land; and the judges in every State shall be bound thereby, anything 
in the Constitution or laws of any State to the contrary notwithstanding. 

3. The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members 
of the several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both 
of the United States, and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or 
affirmation to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be 
required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United 
States. 

Article VII 

The ratification of the Conventions of nine States shall be sufficient 
for the establishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying 
the same. 


353 


Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present 
the seventeenth day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand 
seven hundred and eighty-seven, and of the independence of the United 
States of America the twelfth. In witness whereof we have hereunto sub¬ 
scribed our names. 

George Washington, 
President and Deputy from Virginia. 


NEW HAMPSHIRE 

John Langdon 
Nicholas Gilman 

MASSACHUSETTS 

Nathaniel Gorham 
Rufus King 

CONNECTICUT 

William Samuel Johnson 
Roger Sherman 

NEW YORK 
Alexander Hamilton 

NEW JERSEY 

William Livingston 
David Brearley 
William Paterson 
Jonathan Dayton 

PENNSYLVANIA 

Benjamin Franklin 
Thomas Mifflin 
Robert Morris 
George Clymer 
Thomas Fitzsimons 
Jared Ingersoll 
James Wilson 
Gouverneur Morris 


DELAWARE 

George Read 
Gunning Bedford, Jr. 

John Dickinson 
Richard Bassett 
Jacob Broom 

MARYLAND 

James McHenry 

Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer 

Daniel Carroll 

VIRGINIA 

John Blair 
James Madison, Jr. 

NORTH CAROLINA 

William Blount 
Richard Dobbs Spaight 
Hugh Williamson 

SOUTH CAROLINA 

John Rutledge 
Charles C. Pinckney 
Charles Pinckney 
Pierce Butler 

GEORGIA 

William Few 
Abraham Baldwin 


Attest: William Jackson, Secretary. 

354 


AMENDMENTS 

Article I 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, 
or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to 
petition the government for a redress of grievances. 

Article II 

A well-regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, 
the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. 

Article III 

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without 
the consent of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed 
by law 

Article IV 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, 
and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be vio¬ 
lated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported 
by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, 
and the persons or things to be seized. 

Article V 

No person should be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise in¬ 
famous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, 
except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when 
in actual service in the time of war or public danger; nor shall any person 
be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; 
nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, 
nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; 
nor shall private property be taken for public use without just compensation. 

Article VI 

in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a 
speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district 
wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have 
been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and 
cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; 
to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to 
have the assistance of counsel for his defense. 

355 


Article VII 


In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed 
twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried 
by a jury shall be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, 
than according to the rules of the common law. 


Article VIII 

Excessive bail shall not be required, or excessive fines imposed, nor 
cruel and unusual punishments inflicted. 


Article IX 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be con¬ 
strued to deny or disparage others retained by the people. 


Article X 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, 
nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States, respectively, 
or to the people. 

Article XI 

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to 

extend to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one 

of the United States by citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects 

of any foreign State. t 

Article XII 


The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot 
for President and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an 
inhabitant of the same State with themselves; they shall name in their 
ballots the person voted for as President, and in distinct ballots the person 
voted for as Vice President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons 
voted for as President and of all persons voted for as Vice President, and of 
the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and 
transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed 
to the president of the Senate,—The president of the Senate shall, in the 
presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates 
and the votes shall then be counted;—The person having the greatest number 
of votes for President shall be the President, if such number be a majority 
of the whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such ma¬ 
jority, then from the persons having the highest numbers, not exceeding 
three on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives 
shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the 
President, the votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each 

356 


State having one vote; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member 
or members from two-thirds of the States, and a majority of all the States 
shall be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall 
not choose a President whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon 
them, before the fourth day of March next following, then the Vice President 
, shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other constitutional 
disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes 
as Vice President shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority 
of the whole number of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, 
then from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the 
Vice President; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two-thirds of the 
whole number of senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be 
necessary to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office 
of President shall be eligible to that of Vice President of the United States. 

Article XIII 

1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment 
for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within 
the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

Article XIV 

1. All persons bom or naturalized in the United States, and subject to 
the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State 
wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall 
abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor 
shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due 
process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal 
protection of the laws. 

2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States 
according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons 
in each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at 
any election for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the 
United States, representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial 
officers of a State, or the members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any 
of the male inhabitants of such States, being twenty-one years of age, and 
citizens of the United States, or in any way abridged, except for participation 
in rebellion, or other crime, the basis of representation therein shall be re¬ 
duced in the proportion which the number of such male citizens shall bear 
to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of age in such State. 

3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or elector 

357 


of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under 
the United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath 
as a member of Congress, or as an officer of the United States, or as a member 
of any State legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, 
to support the Constitution of the United States, shall have engaged in 
insurrection or rebellion against the same, or given aid and comfort to the 
enemies thereof. But Congress may, by a vote of two-thirds of each House 
remove such disability. 

4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by 
law, including debts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for 
service in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. 
But neither the United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt 
or obligation incurred in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United 
States, or any claim for the loss or emancipation of any slave; but all such 
debts, obligations and claims shall be held illegal and void. 

5. The Congress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legis¬ 
lation, the provisions of this article. 

Article XV 

1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied 
or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, 
or previous condition of servitude. 

2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

Article XVI 

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, 
from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several 
States, and without regard to any census or enumeration. 

Article XVII 

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two senators 
from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each 
senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the quali¬ 
fication requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State 
legislature. 

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, 
the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such 
vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the 
executive thereof to make temporary appointment until the people fill the 
vacancies by election as the legislature may direct. 

358 


Article XVIII 


Section 1 After one year from the ratification of this article the 
manufacture, sale or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the 
importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States 
and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof, for beverage purposes is 
hereby prohibited. 

Section 2. The Congress and several States shall have concurrent power 
to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 

Article XIX* 

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or 
abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex. Congress 
shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation. 


359 


















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INDEX 


A 

adjutant-genera], of state, 166 
advertisements, unsightliness of, 114 
agriculture, see farming; state departments 
of, 168; United States department of, 182 
airplane, development of, 224 
Alamo, battle of, 285 
Alaska, acquired, 288 
America, the melting-pot, 293 
American ideals, what are, 294 
American nation, how made up, 28 
American Revolution, beginning of, 36; his¬ 
tory of, 232 
anarchy, what is, 138 
appeal, right of, 146 
Armament Conference, 297 
army, of United States, how constituted, 176 
Articles of Confederation, government under, 
234 

athletics, meet for women, 197 
attorney-general, of state, 166 
auditor, of state, 166 

automobile, increase in manufacture of, 224; 
invention of, 218 

B 

bail, what is, 142 
banking, history of, 264-265 
banks, functions of, 266 
barter, what is, 260 
baseball, rules in, 29 
basket ball, 32 
bathtub, 98 

beauty, how children can help to create, 115; 
in American cities, 110; in yards, 112; of 
trees, 113 

Bell, Alexander Graham, invents telephone, 
226; patents telephone, 180 
Bill of Rights, 231 
blind alley jobs, 188 
boss, in city government, 154 
Boy Scouts, at Manila, 11, 12, 13; camping, 
199 


Brockton, factory at, 210 
bubonic plague, 182 

budget, of city, 153; value of private, 106 
Bureau of Engraving and Printing, 81 
Burr, Aaron, trial of, 145 
business, occupation of, 191 

c 

cabinet, of President, how composed, 244-245 
California, and the gold rush, 286; ways to 
reach in 1849, 286 
campaign, what is, 274 
Camp Fire Girls, 12 
camping, pleasure or, 199 
capital, distinguishes civilization, 52; neces¬ 
sity of, 211 

Capitol, of United States, 80 
captain, the, in games, 31 
Cardwell, Mary, story of, 46 
Carnegie, Andrew, succeeded by thrift, 104 
Catskill Mountains, supply New York 
water, 102 

Central Park, in New York, 66 
Chamber of Commerce, 154 
Charles I, wars with Parliament, 231 
Chicago anarchist case, 143 
Chief Justice, of Supreme Court, administers 
presidential oath, 242 
China, and American ideals, 294 
church, importance as community, 25 
citizen, how one becomes, 280; the good, 56; 
the good at school, 56; the good, how dis¬ 
tinguished, 57 

city, charter of, 148; forms of government of, 
149-155; parts of, 60 
city hall, seat of city government, 61 
city manager government, 149, 150, 152, 154 
Civics Club, organization of, 299-303 
Civic Improvement League, 154 
Civil Service Act, what is, 243 
cleanliness, and health, 98; importance of to 
health, 47 

coinage, function of United States govern¬ 
ment, 80 


361 


colonial life, in United States, 40 
colonies, American, deny l ight of Parliament 
to tax, 232 

commission government, of city, 149, 150, 
152, 154 

commissioner of charities and correction, 166 
community, as an athletic team,27; at James¬ 
town and Plymouth, 20; health of, 47; how 
works to prevent fires, 127; idleness in, 44; 
importance of local, 157; larger kinds of, 
73; natural mode of human life, 21; of 
county and town 27; of home, 23; of the 
nation, 28; on Robinson Crusoe’s island, 
20; place of schools in, 131; position of 
teachers in, 132; the church. 25; the school, 
26; thrives by cooperation, 44 
Congress, 28; committees of, 252; how con¬ 
stituted, 80; how it passes a law, 252, why 
composed as it is, 249 

consolidated schools, 20; advantages of, 197 
constitution, of states, 163; how made, 163 
Constitution, of United States, amendments 
to, 238,239; compromises of, 237; debates 
over, 236; how made, 235-237; made in 
Philadelphia, 234; ratified, 237; supreme 
law of land, 163; text of, 314-329; what is, 
235 

cooperation, as shown by Manila fire, 12; 
before it was learned in occupations, 40; 
depends on rules, 29; in athletics, 27; in 
modern occupations, 43 
copyrights, issued by national government, 
180 

coroner, who is, 141 

corporation commissions, 181; functions of, 
171 

council government, in city, 149,150,152,154 
counterfeiters, make money, 81 
country life, advantages of, 68 
county, as a community, 27; courts of, 160; 
how raises money, 160; officers of, 158-160; 
origin of, 157; the, and schools, 69; the, 
officers of, 69; the, what it does, 68; varie¬ 
ties of government of, 158 
courage, in games, 35 
courthouse, capital of county, 70 
courts, cases tried in, 136; circuit, 136, 153, 
160, 171; corporation, 153; county, 136, 
160, 171; justices’, 171; juvenile, 153; of 
state, 77, 171; of United States, cases tried 
by, 256-257; what are, 256; why needed, 
255; police, 153; supreme, 136, 165 


credit, what is, 264 

crime, investigation of, 141; penalties for,137, 
what is, 136 

crowds, safety regulations for, 120 

D 

Dead Letter Office, 83 

Declaration of Independence, 80; made by 
Congress, 232 

democracy, promoted by public schools, 131 
Democratic party, history of, 272; in states, 
173 

departments, of United States government, 
245 

diphtheria, 168 
District of Columbia, 28 
division of labor, 211 
Druid Hill Park, Baltimore, 66 
dust, danger of, 98 

E 

Edison, Thomas, patents appliances, 180 
education, for bread-winning, 97; part of 
United States government in,134; study of, 
129-135; supported by state, 73-74 
Ellis Island, place where immigrants land, 
277 

English Parliament, taxes America, 79 

exchange, what is, 260 

exercise, importance of to health, 193 

F 

factories, modern, 210; safety regulations in 

122 

fair play, need of in games 37 
Farmer-Labor party, rise of, 273 
farming, study of, 202-207; greatest of call¬ 
ings, 202; how to improve, 205-207; im¬ 
provement of as occupation, 93; independ¬ 
ence of, 203; occupation of, 191; profit of, 
205; wealt’ of, 202 
Federal Reserve banks, 171 
Federal Reserve System, what is, 267 
Federalist party, history of, 271 
Field, Cyrus TV., lays cable, 226 
filth, as a promoter of typhoid fever, 46 
fire company, at Manila, 11 
fire department, of modern cities, 64; regu¬ 
lations of, 117 

fire prevention, importance of, 124 

fires, causes of, 127; community works to pre- 


362 


vent, 127; cost of in United States, 124; 
forest, 124; induced by carelessness, 124; 
insurance against, 125; number of in 
United States, 124 
Fitch, John, invents steamboat, 217 
flies, importance of killing, 100 
football, cooperation in, 82; rules in, 30; in¬ 
cidents in Harvard-Yale game, 32, 35 
franchise, of street railway, 221 
Franklin, Benjamin, establishes post offices, 
82; peacemaker in constitutional conven¬ 
tion, 236 

Fulton, Robert, builds steamboat, 217 

G 

Galveston, originator of commission govern¬ 
ment, 155 

games, benefits of, 33; cooperation in, 29-31; 

fair play in, 37; Olympic, 193, 195 
George III, taxes colonies, 231 
Girl Scouts, 12 
Godbold, Lucile, 197 

Goethals, Major G. W., and Panama Canal, 
291 

good roads, aided by state, 75; arguments for, 
222-223; built by counties, 68; highways 
departments and, 167 

Gorgas, Colonel William C., and Panama 
Canal, 291 

government, 22; springs from home, 25 
governor, duties of, 75, 164-165 
Greenback party, history of, 273 

H 

habeas corpus, what is, 258 
Hamilton, Alexander, in constitutional con¬ 
vention, 236 
Health Chores, 50 

health department, of state, 47, 48; of in 
states, 167 

health, depends on cleanliness, 47; impor¬ 
tance of cleanliness to, 98; promoted by 
outdoor exercise, 194; safeguarded by reg¬ 
ulations, 119 

Henry I, grants charter to England, 229 
Henry, Patrick, moral courage of, 36; op¬ 
poses Constitution, 237 
highway commissioner, of state, 166 
home, the first community, 23-25 
hookworm, 168 

hospitals, supported by state, 74 


Hot Springs, 200 

House of Burgesses, of Virginia, 36 
House of Representatives, districts of, 251; 

how composed, 251; where it sits, 249 
houses, clean, 98 
housing, improvement in, 113 
hundreds, in Virginia, 21 

I 

idleness, in every community, 44 
immigrants, character of, 279; danger from, 
279; how they come, 277; law to restrict, 
277 

immigration, causes of, 278; controlled by 
national government, 175 
impeachments, how tried, 253 
imprisonment, function of state, 75; improve¬ 
ment of methods of, 139 
inauguration, description of, 274 
indictment, what is, 141 
initiative, 164 
injunctions, what are, 258 
insurance commissioner, of state, 166 
interest, what is, 105 
internal revenue, what is, 269 
International Court of Arbitration, at Hague, 
297 

Interstate Commerce Commission, duties of, 
182; fixes railroad rates, 220 

J 

James I, dislike Parliament, 230 
James II, overthrown, 231 
Jamestown, community at, 20; first assembly 
at, 231 

Jefferson, Thomas, acquires Louisiana Terri¬ 
tory, 284; writes Declaration of Independ¬ 
ence, 80 

Jerry, and the governor, story of, 76 
John, forced to grant Magna Carta, 229 
Johnson, Owen, story from, 37 
Junior Citizens Club, discussion of savings 
system, 53; meeting of, 305-310; organiza¬ 
tion of, 13-17; reorganized, 85-90; again re¬ 
organized, 184-186; should beautify school 
grounds, 100 

jury, fairness of, 143; grand, what is, 141; in 
trial, 144; petit, what is, 142 
/ 

K 

Keep Your City Clean Club pledge, 103 
Know-Nothing party, history of, 273 

363 


L 

laws, for fire prevention, 128; how benefit 
people, 137; how made, 168-170; how pro¬ 
tect persons on trial, 145, 146; how they 
originate, 22, 25; improvement in, 137; of 
United States, how made, 252; part of in 
human progress, 138; what are, 136 
legislature, branch of state government, 77; 

committees of, 168; of state, 168 
lieutenant-governor, duties of, 165 
Livingston, Robert'R., buys Louisiana, 284 
London Charter, what was, 229 
Louisiana Territory, how acquired, 284 

INI 

Madison, James, suggests constitutional con¬ 
vention, 234 

Magna Carta, granted by King John, 229 
Manila, fire at, 11 

manufacturing, early stages of, 209; impor¬ 
tance of to farming, 207; modern, 210; pro¬ 
moted by steel and steam, 209 
manufacturing section, of city, 60 
Marconi, invents wireless telegraphy, 227 
Mason, George, refuses to sign constitution, 
237 

Massachusetts, founded, 231 
medicine, occupation of, 190 
medium of exchange, what is, 261 
Mesa Verde, 200 

Mexico, United States acquires territory 
from, 286 

Military Academy, of United States, 178 
militia, controlled by national government in 
war, 176 

minting money, 81 
mints, 81 

Modern Health Crusade, 50 

money, as medium of exchange, 262-263 

Money Order, of post office, 83 • 

Monroe, James, and Louisiana Purchase, 284 
Montfort, Simon de, founds Parliament, 230 
Morse, Samuel, invents telegraph, 225 
mosquito extermination, 304 
Mount McKinley Park, 200 

N 

nation, American, what it does, 175; as a com¬ 
munity, 28 

naturalization, what is, 280 
nature, beauties of, 202; love of, 201 


Naval Academy, of United States, 178 

navy, of United States, 178 

New England, local government in, 158 

New Orleans, battle of, 225 

New York City, water supply of, 102 

o 

occupations, before cooperation began, 40; 
business, 191; choice of, 187; farming, 93, 
191; lew' at one time, 92; for women, 187; 
indoor, 95; in modern life, 42; main, 188; 
making up one’s mind as to following, 91; 
medic ine, 190; great variety of modern, 93; 
outdoor, 94; skilled, 95; skilled trades, 193; 
stenography, 190; teaching, 189; unskilled, 
96; unwise, 18S 
office building section, 60 
Olympic Games, history of, 193; revival of, 
195 

ordinances, of city, how passed, 152 

P 

Panama Canal, building of, 289-291 
paper money, where made, 81 
Parcel Post, 83 

parks, in city, 65; national, establishment of, 
199 

Parliament, of England, controlled by king, 
231;founded, 230 

parties, history of, 271-273; in states, 173; 

Democratic, 173; Farmer-Labor, 174; 
^Federalist, 171; Whig, 172; Populist, 174, 
273; Republican, 173, 272; Socialist, 174 
party conventions, account of, 273-274 
Patent Office, contains marvels, 180 
patents, issued by national government, 180 
penitentiaries, institutions of state, 74 
Philadelphia mint, 81 
Philippine Islands, acquired, 289 
playgrounds, importance of, 34; in city, 65; 

story about, 198 
Plymouth, community at, 20 
police departments, regulations of, 117 
police, work of, 63 
Populist party, history of, 273 
Porto Rico, acquired, 289 
post office, controlled by United States gov¬ 
ernment, 82; origin of in United States, 82 
Postal Savings Bank, 83; explained, 54 
Postal Savings stamps, 108 
President, appointing power of, 243; cabinet 


364 



of, 244; certain powers of, 244; comma nder- 
in-chief, 244; inauguration of, 242; how 
chosen, 241; succession of, 242 
presidential electors, how chosen, 241 
primaries, in states, 173 
prisons, in the old times, 139; modern, 139 
probation, children put on, 153; what is, 130 
projects, 310-314 

prosecuting attorney, how investigates crime, 
141; part of in trials, 143, 144 
public duty, performance of test of citizen¬ 
ship, 57 

public libraries, 64 

R 

radiophone, possibilities of, 227 
railroads, built, 217, 218; cost of building, 
219; government ownership of, 220; how 
care for safety of passengers, 118; trans¬ 
continental, 288 
rapid transit, in cities, 221 
referendum, 164 

Republican party, history of, 173, 272 
residential section, of city, 61 
Richard the Lion-Hearted, grants charters, 
229 

rights of Englishmen, what were, 231 
Robinson Crusoe, a jack-of-all-trades, 40; on 
desert isle, 18-20; respects Friday’s rights, 
23 • 

Roosevelt, Theodore, builds Panama Canal, 
289 

Rumsey, James, invents steamboat, 217 
Rural Free Delivery, 83 


public, 129; savings bank in, 53; special, 
133; supported by the county, 69; sup¬ 
ported by taxation, 135; vocational, 133 
secession, right of asserted, 239 
secretary of state, 165 

Senate, approves appointments, 243; more 
important body of Congress, 250; where it 
sits, 249 

senators, of United States, how elected, 250 
Sequoia Park, 200 
service, law of, 44 

sheriff, duties of, 69; importance of, 159; part 
of in investigating crime, 141 
shopping district, 60 
skilled trades, occupations of, 193 
smallpox, 168 

speaker, of Congress, 251; of legislature, 169 
slate, aids good roads, 75; aids public schools, 
74, constitution of, 163; courts of, 77; leg¬ 
islature of, 77; maintains hospitals. 74; 
supports higher education, 73; as a com¬ 
munity, 27 

Staunton, originator of city manager govern¬ 
ment, 155 

stenography, occupation of, 190 
Stephenson, George, invents the locomotive, 
217 

Stockholm, Olympic Games at, 195 
street cars, safety on, 120; 
streets, cared for by city, 62; kept clean, 98 
superintendent of public instruction, 166 
Supreme Court, of United States, extends 
power of government, 240; how composed, 
256; protects citizens, 83; where sits, 80 


s 

safety, and Fourth of July celebrations, 116; 
factory regulations for, 122; health regu¬ 
lations for, 118; in handling crowds, 120; 
in theaters, 120; on street cars, 120; police 
regulations for, 117; promoted by fire de¬ 
partments, 117; promoted by fire drills, 
117; railroad regulations for, 118; regula¬ 
tions for, 116 

safety-first movement, 122; rules, 122 
Sandwich Islands, acquired, 288 
savings bank, 53 

scnoolhouses, as indices to city, 61 
schools, consolidated, 197; early, 129; ele¬ 
mentary, 132; how promote democracy, 
131; place in community life, 131; rise of 


T 

tariff, what is, 179, 268 
tax, income, 270; inheritance, 270 
teachers, position of in community, 132 
teaching, occupation of, 189 
Texas, struggle of for independence, 285 
theater, safety regulations of, 120 
thrift, easiness of, 107; maxims of, 54; mean¬ 
ing of, 104; good reason for, 108; reason for 
to secure return, 105; the savage lacks, 52; 
the way to wealth, 109; universal need of, 
106; ways to practice, 108 
town, as a community, 27; charter of, 148; 

government of, 148 
Town Meeting, in New England, 158 
towns, in New England, 21 


365 


transportation, first methods of, 215; im¬ 
portance of, 213; improvement in, 216 
treasurer, of state, 165 
trees, importance of to cities, 113 
trials, procedure in criminal, 141-145 
trolleys, for local transportation, 217 
typhoid fever, conveyed in impure water, 
101; combated by health departments, 168; 
story of, 46 

u 

Uncle Sam, meaning of, 79 
Union Pacific railroad, building of, 219, 288 
United States, how made up, 79; wins inde¬ 
pendence, 80 

United States government, additional func¬ 
tions of, 175-183; belongs to people, 83; 
beginning of, 232; coins money, 80; con¬ 
trols post office, 82; departments of, 245; 
expenses of, 268; part of in education, 134; 
powers of, 238 

V 

Valley Forge, American army at, 234 
veto, of President, 253 
Vice President, becomes President, 242; how 
chosen, 241 

Virgin Islands, acquired, 289 

Virginia, county in, 157, 158; founded, 231 


vocational schools, 132 
vocations, see occupations 
voter, qualifications of, 172 

w 

warrant, what is, 141 

Washington, beauty of, 110; capital of United 
States, 80 

Washington, George, chairman of constitu¬ 
tional convention, 236; elected President, 
238; leads United States to liberty, 80 
waste, needlessness of, 107 
water, pure, importance of, 101 
Watt, James, invents steam engine, 209 
weather bureau, functions of, 181 
weight, of girls and boys, 193, 196 
Whig party, history of, 272 
William, Duke of the Normans, 228, 229 
Wilson, Woodrow, 173; at Versailles confer¬ 
ence, 297 

Woolworth Building, how built, 52 
World War, America in, 294; expenses of, 269 

Y 

yards, importance of keeping clean, 99 

yellow fever, 182 

Yosemite National Park, 200 


THE END 


366 






















































































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